


STyiTE OF NEW YORK 



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THE 

CMAMPLAIN 
TERCENTENARY 



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CONVENTIONAL PORTRAIT OF 
SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN 



The 
Champlain Tercentenary 



First Report 

of the 

New York Lake Champlain 
Tercentenary Commission 

Second Edition 

Prepared by Henry Wayland Hill, LL.D.. 
Secretary of the Commission 




ALBANY 

J. B. Lyon Company. State Printers 

1913 



Fl27 



NOV 5 1921 



Report 

of the 

Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission 
State of New York 



Albany, N. Y., September 19. 191 1. 
To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of Nefv York: 

Pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided, we, the under- 
signed Commissioners, submit herewith the report of the Lake Cham- 
PLAiN Tercentenary Commission of the State of New York. 
Very respectfully, 

H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman, 

Henry W. Hill, Secretar^y 

Walter C. V/itherbee, Treasurer, 

John H. Booth, 

Louis C. Lafontaine, 

James J. Frawley, 

James A. Foley, 

James Shea, 

John B. Riley, 

Howland Pell, 

William R. Weaver, 

Commissioners. 



CONTENTS 



Part ONE: PREPARATION 

Page 

I. Historical Introduction 1 

II. Evolution of the Celebration Project 11 

III. Report of the First Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission 19 

IV. Federal Recognition and Aid 41 

V. Legislation and Organization 45 

VI. Work of the New York Conunission 53 

Part TWO: CELEBRATION 

I. General Features: Military and Naval, and the Indian Pageants 71 

II. Champlain Sunday 91 

III. Monday, July 5: At Crown Point Forts 115 

IV. Tuesday, July 6: At Ticonderoga 137 

V. Wednesday, July 7: At Cliff Haven, Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh Barracks, 

and Hotel Champlain 1 89 

VI. Thursday, July 8: At Burlington 25 I 

VII. Friday, July 9: At Isle La Motte 299 

VIII. The Proposed Champlain Memorial 337 

APPENDIX 

Samuel Champlain and the Lake Champlain Tercentenary 353 

The Geology of the Champlain Valley , 369 

Episodes in the History of the Champlain Valley 383 

What Early Travelers Said of the Champlain Valley 40 1 

Libretto of the Play of Hiawatha 425 

INDEX 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Conventional Portrait of Champlain Frontispiece 

Facing Page 

President William Howard Taft 8 

Governor Charles E. Hughes of New York 16 

Governor George H. Prouty of Vermont 16 

Senator Elihu Root of New York 24 

Hon. Jacob M. Dickinson, Secretary of War , 24 

Hon. J. J. Jusserand, French Ambassador 32 

Rt. Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador 32 

Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, Canadian Postmaster-General 40 

Sir Lomer Gouin, Premier of Quebec 40 

Lieutenant de Vaisseau Benoist d'Azy 40 

H. Wallace Knapp 44 

Henry W. Hill 46 

Walter C. Witherbee 48 

James J. Frawley 50 

James A. Foley 52 

James Shea 52 

William R. Weaver 54 

Howland Pell 56 

John H. Booth 60 

John B. Riley 62 

Louis C. Lafontaine 64 

Governor Horace White 66 

Hon. George R. Malby 68 

Hon. David J. Foster 70 

Hon. Frank Plumley 70 

Lynn M. Hays , 72 

Frank L. Fish 74 

John M. Thomas 76 

Horace W. Bailey 78 

Walter H. Crockett 80 

George T. Jarvis 80 

William J. Van Patten 82 

F. O. Beaupre 84 

Arthur F. Stone 86 

Hon. Seth Low, Hon. Albert C. Barnes, Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie, Hon. 

Wendell P. Stafford 96 

Clinton Scollard, Percy Mac Kaye, Daniel L. Cady, Prof. John Erskine, 

Bliss Carman 112 

Ruins of Crown Point Forts 1 20 

Crowds Leaving the Steamers 1 20 

Governor and Mrs. Hughes Landing at Crown Point 120 

Speakers at Crown Point 120 

vii 



Illustrations 



Facing Pace 

President Taft Inspecting Work of Restoration 1 36 

President Taft and Party Inspecting Ruins 1 36 

Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga 1 36 

Assembling of Crowds at Fort Ticonderoga 136 

Bishop Richard H. Nelson, Rt. Rev. Arthur C. A. Hall. Very Rev. Thomas 

A. Prevel, Mgr. A. Racicot 1 84 

Mgr. E. P. Roy. Cardinal Gibbons. Rev. P. J. Barrett. Rt. Rev. Thomas 

M. A. Burke 192 

Hotel Champlain 232 

Invitation to Banquet 232 

Floats in Plattsburgh Parade 248 

Grandstand Exercises at Plattsburgh Barracks 248 

Throngs at Plattsburgh During Tercentenary Celebration 248 

President Taft and Others Saluting the Flag at Barracks 248 

Chairman Knapp, Commissioner Witherbee, Governor and Mrs. Hughes and 

Secretary Treadwell 248 

Review of Troops at Burlington by President Taft 256 

Crowds Listening to Speeches at Burlington, July 8th 256 

Burlington's Grandstand During Indian Pageants 256 

President Taft. Governor Prouty, Ambassadors Jusserand and Bryce. Gov- 
ernor Hughes, Admiral Uriu and Hon. Seth Low 256 

Governor-General's Foot Guards from Ottawa 256 

Mayor W. B. Mooers of Plattsburgh. New York 296 

Mayor James E. Burke of Burlington, Vermont 296 

Witnessing Indian Pageants at Isle La Motte 304 

Senator Henry W. Hill Delivering Address at Isle La Motte 314 

Boulder Unveiled at Isle La Motte 332 

Tercentenary Memorial to Samuel Champlain 346 

Steamer Vermont During the Celebration 352 

Cuts of Steamers Phoenix, Conquest, General Greene and Franklin 352 

Hull of Arnold's Schooner, Revenge 352 

Commodore Macdonough's Victory at Battle of Lake Champlain 352 

Official Invitation to the Tercentenary Exercises 352 

The Don de Dieu 360 

Statue of Champlain at Champlain. N. Y 368 

Statue of Champlain at St. John. N, B 368 

Statue of Champlain at Quebec 368 

Souvenir Badge and Official Guest Badge of New York 376 

L. O. Armstrong 384 

Monument, Crab Island. Lake Champlain 398 

Indian War Party in Canoes 400 

Scenes from Indian Pageants 424 

Map of Restoration of Fort Ticonderoga 432 

A Plan of the Town and Fort of Carillon 432 

Historical Map of the Champlain Valley 464 

viii 



The 
Tercentenary Celebration 



of th( 



Discovery of Lake Champlain 



Part One 



PREPARATION 



I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 
The Strife for Control 



Historical Introduction 

By Senator Henry Wayland Hill, Secretary of the New York Commission 

I. The Strife for Control 

IN A SURVEY of the discovery and settlement of the territory comprising 
Eastern Canada and the northeastern part of the United States, 

attention is drawn to the skilful navigator, intrepid explorer and dis- 
coverer of Lake Champlain, who brought the light of civilization into 
that valley, and was the first white man to set foot upon the soil now 
embraced in the confines of the State of New York. 

Had Samuel Champlain taken possession of the territory of New 
York in the name of the King, Henry IV, whom he represented, under 
the claim of right thereto on the ground of discovery, and had that 
possession ripened into French occupancy, such territory might even now 
be dominated by other language, laws and institutions than those that 
did prevail. 

The results of the French settlement in and occupancy of the north- 
eastern provinces of the Dominion of Canada seem to warrant such a 
conclusion. The nearest approach to similar conditions in New York 
were the few French forts and French settlements in the Champlain 
valley and along the south shore of Lake Ontario, and the seigniorial 
grants of extensive tracts of territory in and about Lake Champlain, 
made prior to the conquest of Canada by the British, and sought to be 
confirmed at the International Conference at Windmill Point in 1 766, 
*' involving," says Lord Dartmouth in an official communication to 
Governor Tryon, November 4, 1 772, " a consideration of great difficulty 
and delicacy, and by no means of a nature to admit of an hasty decision." 

Its confirmation was opposed by Edmund Burke before his Majesty's 
Commissioners for Trade and Plantations on November 12, 1772, he 



State of New York 



having requested that '* he might be heard by his counsel as well in behalf 
of the Province of New York, as of sundry persons, proprietors of lands 
within the said Province under grants from the Governor and Council 
thereof against the confirmation by the Crown of any grant made by the 
French King or the Governor of Canada within the limits of the said 
Province of New York." These grants were not upheld for reasons 
stated elsewhere. 

These settlements were wholly ineffectual In making any permanent 
impression upon the language, laws and institutions of this Province. 

In the evolution of National development, the extent and permanency 
of social forces largely condition their effectiveness, as seen in the impress 
made upon the early institutions of the Province of New York by the 
Dutch, who settled in the southeastern part of the Province and ruled 
it for half a century. Had the French followed up the discovery of 
Lake Champlain in 1609, and settled and permanently occupied the 
territory south of the 45th parallel of latitude, as effectively as did the 
Dutch the southeastern part of the State, the result, it is safe to say, would 
have been vastly different. It is not unHkely that a part of New York 
under such conditions would have been included within the domain of 
the Dominion of Canada; for under the conditions as they existed, the 
Long House of the Iroquois Confederacy, which stretched from the 
Mohawk on the east to Lake Erie on the west, was the only barrier to the 
predatory incursions and warlike expeditions of the French and Indians 
from the Canadian territory on the north. Anomalous as it may appear, 
that was made so largely by reason of the battle on Lake Champlain 
between the Algonquins and Hurons on the one side, and the Iroquois 
on the other, in which Champlain's use of firearms, to the utter surprise 
and loss to the Iroquois of three of their chiefs, made them thereafter 
deadly enemies of the French. 

This hostility of the Iroquois to the French was one of the principal 
causes which prevented the French from gaining or maintaining a perma- 
nent settlement within the confines of the Province of New York. Among 
other causes, however, were the abandonment or loss of Ticonderoga 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



and Crown Point in 1 759, the year following the defeat of the British 
under General Abercromby at Ticonderoga by the French under the 
command of Montcalm. This gallant officer achieved with his small 
force of less than 4,000 men so signal a victory over the British, number- 
ing about 1 5,000, as to prove very dispiriting to William Pitt, who in a 
communication to Grenville said : " I own the news [from the Champlain 
valley] has sunk my spirits and left very painful impressions on my 
mind." 

Notwithstanding the signal victory of the French under Montcalm at 
Ticonderoga in 1 758, Governor Vaudreuil, said to be jealous of Mont- 
calm, one of the ablest soldiers France had ever sent into the field, 
assigned de Bourlamaque to the command of the French posts in the 
Champlain valley in place of Montcalm, who was needed for the defense 
of Quebec ; and shortly after ordered de Bourlamaque " not to think 
of defending Forts Carillon and Frederic, but to abandon them as the 
British approached and fall back to Isle aux Noix." This was done, as 
General Amherst, who succeeded Abercromby in command of the 
British forces, advanced from Lake George with large reinforcements, 
comprising an army of 5,743 regulars, including Royal Americans and 
Colonial troops. As the British under General Amherst were about to 
assault the works at Ticonderoga, de Bourlamaque retired from Fort 
Carillon to Fort Frederic ; and thence, on July 31,1 759, after blowing 
up the latter fort, withdrew to Isle aux Noix with his artillery and such 
provisions as he could transport. This was approximately 150 years, 
to a month, of French occupancy since the discovery of the lake by 
Champlain. 

The period of French domination was followed by British possession 
and occupation and the thrilling events of the Revolutionary struggle for 
the independence of the Colonies, with Vermont an independent republic, 
not yet admitted into the Union nor recognized by the other thirteen states, 
but still loyal to the cause which led to their independence. The various 
military expeditions through the Champlain valley, and the two cele- 
brated naval engagements on the lake, had an important bearing upon 



State of New York 



the sovereign control of that part of our National domain, and exerted 
a marked influence on American institutions in the formative period of 
their history. Three nations there contended for the possession of that 
" Gatew^ay of the Nation." The miUtary ruins still to be seen attest its 
strategic importance in three wars for the sovereign control of that 
territory. 

Long prior to the discovery of Lake Champlain it was the theater of 
the fierce and bloody encounters upon its waters of the three most power- 
ful of the savage nations, namely, the Iroquois, the Algonquins and the 
Hurons. Many are the legends handed down from that remote period 
of the struggles that made it impossible for any of these aboriginal nations 
to gain a permanent settlement along the shores of the lake; struggles 
which resulted in driving them back to the strongholds and fastnesses 
of the mountain sides overhanging the lake, and into the valleys and up 
the hillsides surrounding it. It was a paradise for the aborigines, whose 
native costumes, and adventurous but precarious life were a startling 
revelation to such an explorer as Champlain, coming as he did from the 
refinements of the French courts of the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries. These 
warlike tribes continued to traverse the lake long after its discovery. 
Their canoes formed picturesque flotillas on its blue waters surrounded 
by densely shaded, lofty and alluring mountains, which ever since have 
been the admiration of tourists. 

The first attempted settlement of the whites in the valley was at Isle 
La Motte, once the camping ground of the Algonquin and Iroquois 
Indians, where a Jesuit mission station was established in 1 642. A fort 
was built there by Sieur de la Motte in 1 665—6, which was dedicated to 
Ste. Anne on the 26th day of July, 1666, when high mass was cele- 
brated for the first time, in the presence of the famous Carignan-Salieres 
Regiment of 600 veterans and 1 50 Indians that had rendezvoused there 
at the command of M. de Tracy. 

Thereafter Fort Ste. Anne was the stopping place for such expeditions 
as those under Captain John Schuyler in 1690, Major Peter Schuyler in 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



1 691 , Captain John Schuyler on September 2, 1 698, and Richard Mont- 
gomery and General Philip Schuyler in I 775. 

Parkman has said : " Through the midst of the great Canadian wilder- 
ness stretched Lake Champlain pointing straight to the heart of the British 
settlements — a watery thoroughfare of neutral attack, and the only 
approach by which without a long detour by wilderness or sea a hostile 
army could come within striking distance of the colony." 

In 1 73 1 the settlement was begun at Windmill Point, where a stone 
windmill was built. In 1731 Fort St. Frederic was built at Crown 
Point in honor of the French Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Frederic 
Maurepas, by Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada; 
and in 1755 Fort Carillon was built at Ticonderoga, and attempted 
settlements were made at each of these places and at Chimney Point; 
the latter place was said to be abandoned when visited by Robert Rogers, 
the famous scout, in 1 756. 

In 1755 Baron Dieskau, in command of 3,573 men, including such 
troops as could be assembled at Montreal, made an expedition through 
the lake to Crown Point and Ticonderoga, where he left detachments of 
troops; and marching southward, engaged the British troops under com- 
mand of General William Johnson at the head of Lake George, where 
General Dieskau was wounded. The latter was taken a prisoner to the 
tent of General Johnson ; his forces were repulsed and retreated to Ticon- 
deroga. Montcalm succeeded him in command, proceeded up the lake 
with his forces in 200 canoes and arrived at Fort Carillon in July, 1 757. 
After some months devoted to preparation, he succeeded in taking Fort 
William Henry. 

Captain Robert Rogers and Captain Israel Putnam, while the French 
were at Lake George, attempted to capture Fort St. Frederic, but 
without avail. Of this entire period the historian, Peter S. Palmer, 
says : " The lake now presented a most lively appearance ; canoes, 
bateaux and schooners were constantly passing and repassing between 
Canada and Crown Point and Ticonderoga, transporting troops from 
point to point, and were loaded with supplies and ammunition. It so con- 



State of New York 



tinued during the Revolutionary period." Following the French and 
Indian War, settlements were made about Lake Champlain, the most 
important of which was that of Major Philip Skene at Skenesborough, 
now Whitehall, in 1 761 , although a settlement was undoubtedly effected 
at Swanton Falls sometime prior thereto, and several other settlements 
were formed about the lake from that time on. One of the most thrilling 
episodes in Champlain history was the capture of Ticonderoga by Ethan 
Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, on May 10, 1775, and on the 
following morning Colonel Warner captured Crown Point. 

On May 14th of that year Captain Benedict Arnold proceeded with 
a small force on a schooner down the lake toward St. John's, where he 
seized a sloop, and immediately returned up the river and reached Crown 
Point in safety. These daring exploits won popular confidence in the 
ultimate success of the Colonies, and it was decided to assemble such 
troops as were available at Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In the 
meantime boats were built at Skenesborough, Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point for transportation down the lake to meet the forces assembling 
under Governor Sir Guy Carleton on the Richelieu river. Brigadier- 
General Richard Montgomery embarked at Crown Point on September 
4, 1 775, with such troops as were there, and was followed by General 
Philip Schuyler with the remaining troops. General Schuyler overtook 
Montgomery at Isle La Motte, and they proceeded to Isle aux Noix, 
which they fortified to prevent the passage of any sloop up the river into 
the lake. General Montgomery afterwards captured St. John's and 
Montreal, and proceeded to Quebec, where he afterwards lost his life in 
attempting to scale the Heights of Abraham, while General Schuyler, 
owing to ill health, returned to Albany. 

In the spring of 1 776 General Sullivan, finding the American forces 
reduced by sickness, desertion and death, decided to abandon the con- 
quest of Canada, and to return to Ticonderoga. The sick were taken 
on board boats at St. John's the last of June and transported to Isle aux 
Nolx, Point au Fer, and Isle La Motte. Point au Fer was fortified, and 
the sick there cared for until they could be sent to Crown Point, which 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



transfer was made under most unfavorable circumstances, in leaky boats, 
with more or less exposure to the inclemency of the weather. Benjamin 
Franklin, in returning from Montreal to Ticonderoga in June, 1 776, was 
conveyed in a similar manner, in an open boat, although seventy years 
of age and not in the best of health. 

The preparation for the naval engagements on Lake Champlain taxed 
the resources of the colonists about Lake Champlain in the building and 
equipping of a small fleet in command of Benedict Arnold, which 
engaged the enemy at Valcour Island on October 11, 1 776. Captain 
Pringle was in charge of the British fleet, which was larger and better 
equipped and heavier gunned than the American fleet. The skill and 
bravery exhibited by Benedict Arnold on that occasion won for him 
the plaudits of General Washington and the Continental Congress, and 
his escape with such of his vessels as were not destroyed, is considered 
one of the remarkable achievements in the annals of American naval 
warfare. Several places in and about the lake were made memorable 
by that engagement, which consisted of two engagements, one on the 1 1 th 
and one on the 13th of October, and extended through a large portion 
of the lake; and though he was unsuccessful in overcoming the stronger 
British fleet, he acquitted himself with such adroitness and valor as to 
satisfy the colonists that in such commanders as he there were not lacking 
naval and military qualities of a high order. 

Captain A. T. Mahan, in an article in Scnhners Magazine for Feb- 
ruary, 1 898, says : " Considering its raw material and the recency of its 
organization, words can scarcely exaggerate the heroism of the resistance 
which undoubtedly depended chiefly upon the military qualities of its 
leader; the little American navy on Lake Champlain was wiped out, 
but never had any force, big or little, lived to better purpose or died more 
gloriously, for it saved the lake for that year." 

Crown Point fell as a result of the defeat of the American navy, and 
was occupied by the British for two weeks, when General Carleton 
became satisfied that Ticonderoga was sufficiently manned by the force 
under General Gates to withstand an assault. On November 3d Genera! 



State of New York 



Carleton withdrew his troops to Canada, and the force under General 
Gates at Ticonderoga immediately took possession of it. 

During the following year Lake Champlain was the scene of the most 
important military expedition, under the command of General John 
Burgoyne, who with his troops embarked at St. John's on vessels, and 
proceeded through the lake, feasting 400 Indians, including the Iroquois, 
Algonquins, Abenakis and Ottawas, at a camp upon the River Boquet, 
at Willsborough, on June 21, 1777, on which occasion he appealed to 
them to unite with his Majesty's forces in America in making war ag£unst 
the common enemy. Answer was made to this speech by the chief of 
the Iroquois, in which he said: *' In proof of the sincerity of our pro- 
fessions, our whole villages able to go to war, are come forth." Bur- 
goyne was censured in Parliament by Fox, Burke and Chatham, for 
employing Indians as a part of his military forces. His defeat at Saratoga 
wrought his discomfiture and his condemnation by Parliament. 

After the withdrawal of his forces from Lake Champlain, it con- 
tinued to be the scene of military expeditions and " mysterious naval 
movements of the British," whose vessels frequently entered the lake and 
" kept the northern frontier," says Palmer, " in a state of ceaseless 
inquietude and alarm." 

The British did not give up possession of Point au Fer until 1 788, 
five years after the treaty of peace. Thereafter Lake Champlain passed 
into the sovereign control of the United States and so remained until 
the second war with Great Britain. 

The naval engagement on Lake Champlain in the War of 1812 was 
one of the two principal engagements of the American navy, and was 
conducted with much skill on the part of Commander Thomas Mac- 
donough, in command of the American fleet, against Captain George 
Downie, in command of the British fleet, which was larger and heavier 
gunned. Mr. Walter H. Crockett, in his " History of Lake Champlain," 
says that the American fleet consisted of fourteen craft, aggregating 
2,244 tons, manned by 882 men and carrying 86 guns, and that the 
British fleet was composed of 1 6 vessels, aggregating 2,402 tons, carry- 




Copyright and by courtesy of Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C. 

PRESIDENT WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



ing approximately 937 men and 92 guns.* The engagement lasted two 
hours and a half, and nearly every spar on both fleets was shot away. 
Macdonough's victory was complete, and a gold medal was awarded to 
Macdonough by Congress, thanking him for his " decisive and splendid 
victory." Theodore Roosevelt, in his " Naval War of 1812," pays this 
tribute to him: " Macdonough, in this battle, won a higher fame than 
any other commander of the war. * * * Down to the time of the 
Civil War he is the greatest figure in our naval history." This victory 
cleared Lake Champlain of British war vessels, and made the lake 
famous the world over. 

Since that time its sovereign control by the United States has been 
secure, and its waters became the highways of a peaceful and prosperous 
commerce, and its attractiveness and beauty have been such as to engage 
the attention of Americans and tourists from other lands, who are wont 
to compare it with the Lakes of Como, Lugano and Maggiore, the resorts 
for centuries of pleasure seekers of European nations. 



* Neeser's "Statistical Tables of the U. S. Navy" states that Downie had 16 vessels, carrying 
95 guns and 897 men. 



II. EVOLUTION OF THE CELEBRATION PROJECT 



II. EVOLUTION OF THE CELEBRATION PROJECT 



THE DECISIVE EVENTS which have been noted may serve to point out 
the successive periods of domination in the Champlain valley, by 
the aborigines, by the French, the British, and the American 
patriots. Without entering here more fully upon the general course of 
history, it will be seen that the Champlain valley, even in its wars, rivals 
in importance any other portion of our national domain, the greater battle- 
fields of the Civil War alone excepted. But the significance of its history 
is not merely in its military record. It has been closely identified with 
many of the great civic events and political movements which have exerted 
a marked influence upon the character of our institutions. In its story are 
inseparably woven events of colonial, state, national and international sig- 
nificance, many of which have had a direct bearing on the course of our 
national life and in moulding our institutions. 

The marking of anniversaries of historic events with celebrations of 
an historic character, has long been, in many lands, a popular and a 
worthy form of commemoration. The use of historic costumes, of floats 
and other devices in brilliant pageants, has especially in recent years come 
into high favor, notably on great historical occasions at London, Warwick, 
St. John and Quebec. At the last two named, the celebrations com- 
memorated the exploits and fame of Samuel Champlain. The people 
of the Champlain valley, desirous of suitably observing the 300th anni- 
versary of its discovery, early conceived the idea of an historical celebra- 
tion, which should combine historical or symbolic pageantry with appro- 
priate religious and literary features. 

The interest of the American people in such celebration as that at 
Yorktown in 1 88 1 , the centennial of the inauguration of George Wash- 
ington as the first President of the United States at New York in 1889, 
the historic phases of the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, the Columbian 



14 State of New York 

Exposition at Chicago in 1893, the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, and 
still others, leaves no room for doubt but that Americans, quite as gen- 
erally as the people of other nations, are deeply concerned in whatever has 
contributed in any way to the extent and development of their country 
and to the formation and character of its civil and religious institutions. 
They believe that the more these are studied and the better they are under- 
stood, the stronger will be the reliance of the people on the broad and 
humane principles that underlie the fabric of our republican form of 
government, for whose preservation should be begot in the minds of all 
classes unwavering loyalty and the willingness to pour out the last full 
measure of personal devotion. The historic portions of our country, 
young in years though they be, have been the theaters where have been 
enacted deadly tragedies, involving human life and our national sov- 
ereignty and are therefore suggestive of many examples of true and 
lofty patriotism, ** the type most needed in this age and most useful to 
mankind," as was said by the historian, Lecky, in defining an ideal. The 
discovery, subjugation and settlement of various parts of the country 
involved efforts, sacrifices and hardships on the part of many, worthy 
of emulation, and these through pageant, realistic presentation, or other- 
wise, cannot too often be called to the attention of successive generations, 
destined to occupy and ultimately to control this land, dedicated as it is 
to the principles of civil and religious liberty. 

Love of country is born of a knowledge of its institutions, its traditions 
and history, wherein are revealed the lives of its people and their heroic 
achievements. Such motives as these from time to time have actuated 
the people of this country to celebrate some of the important events in our 
history and led to the inception of the Tercentenary Celebration of the 
Discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain in the month of 
July, 1609, which with attending circumstances proved to be crucial 
in determining the character of the language, laws and institutions of the 
people of the Province of New York. It was thought that such a cele- 
bration might also very properly commemorate some of the thrilling 
events of state, national and international import, that occurred in the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 15 

Champlain valley during the two centuries following its discovery, for 
no other part of our domain is richer in historic lore. This conception 
of the scope of the celebration was largely realized as will be seen from a 
perusal of the programme of exercises that followed. 

The Quebec Tercentenary, under the direction of the well known 
manager, Frank Lascelles, a graduate of Oxford, who was consulted on 
several occasions in relation to the scope of the Champlain celebration, 
was such a success that the people of Vermont and New York con- 
cluded that a celebration less pretentious and less spectacular, but still 
realistic enough to picture the discovery and aboriginal life of the Cham- 
plain valley and extensive enough to recall some of the stirring events 
which have made Lake Champlain famous in two hemispheres, might very 
properly engage the attention and warrant the participation of these 
states and of the Federal Government in its preparation and fulfillment. 

To Vermont belongs the credit of taking the first official action in the 
matter. Early in November, 1906, the Hon. Robert W. McCuen, a 
member from Vergennes, introduced in the House of Representatives of 
Vermont, a resolution which, as finally adopted and approved by 
Governor Proctor, November 15th, read as follows: 

Joint Resolution for the Appointment of a Commission for the 
Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Discovery of Lake 
Champlain. 

Resolved b^ the Senate and House of Representatives: 

Whereas, The discovery of Lake Champlain was an event in history fully as 
important as many others that have been recognized by various States, as well as by 
the National Government, and 

Whereas, The three hundredth anniversary of such discovery will occur on 
July 4. 1 909, it is hereby 

Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives: That this event should 
be observed in a fitting manner, and to bring about an observance commensurate 
with its importance there is hereby provided a commission consisting of the Governor, 
who shall be chairman, ex officio, and six other members to be appointed by the 
Governor before January 1, 1907, one of whom shall act as secretary. Said 



16 State of New York 



commission is hereby empowered to adopt such measures as in its judgment may 
be reasonable or necessary to bring about the fitting observance of such event. And, 
as the interests of the State of Nev^ York and the Dominion of Canada are allied 
with those of Vermont in such observance, it is hereby recommended that said 
commission confer with the proper authorities of New York and Canada to ascer- 
tain what action they or either of them will take with Vermont in making the observ- 
ance of this event successful and a credit to all: and that the commission report the 
result of such efforts, together with its recommendations to the General Assembly 
of 1908. 

The members of said commission shall receive no pay for services rendered, 
except their necessary expenses. 

The secretary of said commission shall be allowed such sum for services rendered 
as may be fixed by said commission. 

The Auditor of Accounts is hereby authorized to draw an order for such 
expenses and allowance when approved by the Governor. 

Thomas C. Cheney, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
George H. Prouty. 

President of the Senate, 
Approved November 15, 1906. 

Fletcher D. Proctor, 

Governor. 

Immediately upon its approval. Governor Proctor called the matter 
to the attention of Senator Henry W. Hill, of Buffalo, who was at Mont- 
pelier, Vt., at the time, and suggested that he prepare and introduce a 
similar resolution in the Legislature of New York. 

Governor Proctor, who was ex oficio chairman of the Vermont Com- 
mission, appointed as the other members thereof the following gentle- 
men: Walter E. Howard, Lynn M. Hays, Horace W. Bailey, M. D. 
McMahon, R. W. McCuen and Walter H. Crockett. 

Some members of the Vermont Commission presented the matter to 
Governor Hughes, Senators H. Wallace Knapp, Henry W. Hill and 
others, at Albany, and also to Sir Wilfred Laurier at Ottawa. Both 
executives were impressed with the importance and desirability of such 




Copyright and by courtesy of Moffett Studio, Chicago, 111. 

GOVERNOR CHARLES E. HUGHES 




GOVERNOR GEORGE H. PROUTY 

Chairman of the Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 17 

a celebration. On April 15, 1 907, Senator Hill offered in the Senate of 
New York the following concurrent resolution, which passed the Senate 
that day and the Assembly on the next day : 

Whereas, The discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain in 
July, 1609, antedates the discovery by the whites of any other portion of the terri- 
tory now comprising the State of New York, and was an event worthy of com- 
memoration in the annals of the State and nation; and 

Whereas, The State of Vermont, in 1 906, appointed a commission consisting 
of the Governor of that State and six other commissioners, to confer with commis- 
sioners to be appointed on the part of New York and the Dominion of Canada, 
to ascertain what action, if any, ought to be taken by such States and the Dominion 
of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary; therefore, be it 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That a commission, consisting of the 
Governor, who shall be chairman ex officio, two citizens to be designated by him, the 
Lieutenant-Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, two Senators, to be designated 
by the Lieutenant-Governor, and two members of the Assembly, to be designated 
by the Speaker, be appointed to represent the State of New York at such confer- 
ence, with power to enter into negotiations with the commissioners representing the 
State of Vermont and those representing the Dominion of Canada for the observance 
of such tercentenary, and that such commission report the results of their negotia- 
tions, together with their recommendations thereon, to the Legislature of 1 908. 

That such commissioners receive no pay for their services and that their necessary 
expenses be paid by the State, but such payment shall not exceed the amount 
expressly appropriated therefor; 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur). That the resolution relating to the same 
subject, introduced by Senator Hill, passed by the Senate on the tenth day of April, 
and concurred in by the Assembly, be and is hereby rescinded. 

In support of the resolution Senator Hill dwelt upon the fact that 
Champlain was the first white man to enter what is now New York State. 
He called attention to the great part the Champlain valley has sustained 
as a highway both for the passage of war parties and of armies, and of 
the messengers of peace, of civilization and of commerce. Its agreeable 
summer climate and scenic charm were additional arguments in favor of 
the proposed celebration. 



18 State of New York 

Under this concurrent resolution of April 15, 1907, was created the 
Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission of New York State. TTie 
report of that first or preliminary commission was sent to the Senate by 
Governor Hughes on March 23, 1908. As it contains a full record of 
the action taken in behalf of New York State, up to the time when it was 
sent to the Senate, and includes many matters germane thereto, it may 
properly constitute the next chapter in our narrative and is given in full, 
in the following pages. 



III. REPORT OF THE FIRST LAKE CHAMPLAIN 
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION 

April 15. 1907, to March 23, 1908 
19 



III. REPORT OF THE FIRST LAKE CHAMPLAIN 
TERCENTENARY COMMISSION 

To the Legislature of the State of New York: 

The Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission of New York State 
respectfully submits the following report of action taken, and suggestions 
for proposed action in the matter for which the Commission was created. 

April 15, 1907, Mr. Hill offered in the Senate the following Con- 
current Resolution, authorizing the appointment of a commission to con- 
fer with Commissioners from Vermont and the Dominion of Canada in 
relation to the observance of the tercentenary of Lake Champlain : 

RESOLUTION CREATING THE COMMISSION 

Whereas, The discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain, on 
July 4, 1609, antedates the discovery by the whites of any other portion of the 
territory now comprising the State of New York, and was an event worthy of 
commemoration in the annals of the State and nation, and 

Whereas, The State of Vermont, in 1906, appointed a commission consisting 
of the Governor of that State and six other commissioners, to confer with com- 
missioners to be appointed on the part of New York and the Dominion of Canada, 
to ascertain what action, if any, ought to be taken by such States and the Dominion 
of Canada for the observance of such tercentenary; 

Therefore, he it Resolved (if the Assembly concur), that a commission, consist- 
ing of the Governor, who shall be chairman ex officio, two citizens to be designated 
by him, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, two Senators, to be 
designated by the Lieutenant-Governor, and two members of the Assembly, to be 
designated by the Speaker, be appointed to represent the State of New York at 
such conference, with power to enter into negotiations with the commissioners 
representing the State of Vermont and those representing the Dominion of Canada 
for the observance of such tercentenary, and that such commission report the results 
of their negotiations, together with their recommendations thereon, to the Legislature 
of 1908. 

That such commissioners receive no pay for their services and that their necessary 
expenses be paid by the State, but such payment shall not exceed the amount 
expressly appropriated therefor. 

21 



22 State of New York 

The foregoing resolution was adopted by the Senate April 15, 1907, 
and by the Assembly concurring without amendment April 1 6, 1 907. 

For the expenses of the Commissioners appointed under this resolution, 
$2,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, was appropriated by 
Chapter 578 of the Laws of 1907. 

Governor Hughes appointed as members of said Commission the Hon. 
Frank S. Witherbee of Port Henry, and the Hon. John H. Booth of 
Plattsburgh. 

The Lieutenant-Governor designated the Hon. Henry W. Hill of 
Buffalo, and the Hon. John C. R. Taylor of Middletown. 

The Speaker of the Assembly named the Hon. Alonson T. Dominy 
of Beekmantown, and the Hon. James A. Foley of New York city. 

JOINT MEETING OF THE NEW YORK AND VERMONT 
COMMISSIONS 

At a joint meeting of the New York and Vermont Commissions, 
held at Hotel Champlain, Bluff Point, September 6, 1907, His Excel- 
lency Governor Hughes presiding. Governor Proctor, of Vermont, and 
six members of the Vermont Commission were present, as were also all 
of the New York Commission, except the Lieutenant-Governor, the 
Speaker, and the Hon. Frank S. Witherbee, absent in Europe. Mr. 
Victor H. Paltsits, State Historian of New York, also attended by 
invitation. Mr. Frank H. Severance of Buffalo was chosen Secretary 
of the New York State Commission. 

The Chairman stated the general purpose of the Commissions and the 
desirability of reaching definite suggestions for carrying out the work. 
On motion of Senator Hill, a sub-committee of three was created, to be 
appointed by the Chair, the Governor being Chairman ex officio of the 
said sub-committee, who should confer with the Secretary of State at 
Washington as to advisable steps to be taken in regard to bringing the 
proposed celebration to the attention of the Republic of France, the 
Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 23 

The sub-committee subsequently appointed consisted of Hon. Henry 
W. Hill, Qhairman; Hon. Frank S. Witherbee and Hon. John H. 
Booth. 

A TOUR OF INSPECTION 

A tour of inspection of historic sites on Lake Champlain having been 
determined upon, members of the two Commissions, including the 
Governor of New York, the Governor of Vermont, and a few guests, 
left Hotel Champlain on the morning of September 7, 1907, on two 
yachts. 

As they passed northward, places of historic interest were pointed out, 
and every island, every bay and headland, was found to have its asso- 
ciations. The attention of your Commission was especially directed at 
the outset to Valcour island, just off the New York shore near Platts- 
burgh. This island, now in part owned by the Federal Government, 
has played an important part in three wars. On October 13, 1759, 
Captain Loring of Amherst's army pursued a French schooner and 
three sloops under the shelter of Valcour. Two of the sloops were here 
sunk, and the third was run aground by her crew. The naval engage- 
ment of October 11,1 776, between the American and British fleets, was 
off Valcour; which was also within the theater of the engagement of 
September 11, 1814. 

Other islands in this part of the lake share the history of these events. 
It was from Schuyler's island, October 12, 1776, that Benedict Arnold 
wrote to General Gates, announcing the loss of two vessels of the Ameri- 
can fleet. 

The commissioners crossed the bay which was the scene of Mac- 
donough's brilliant victory of September 11, 1814, in which the 
American loss was, according to Neeser's *' Statistical Tables of the 
U. S. Navy," 52 killed and 59 wounded, and the British loss, accord- 
ing to the same authority, 84 killed and 1 1 wounded. Special note 
was taken of Crab Island, where the Americans placed their sick, 
September 7th to 10th, and where the convalescent soldiers built and 



24 State of New York 



manned a battery. Here is the burial-ground where were interred the 
soldiers and marines killed in the battle of September 11, 1814. 

Just beyond we passed Cumberland Head, with associations not only 
of the War of 1812, but of the Revolution. Here it was, in June, 1 111^ 
that Burgoyne's army rested for several days. 

Further north, on the New York side. Point au Fer was passed. 
This famous point, visited by many of the early expeditions, was fortified 
by General Sullivan in 1 776. In June of the next year it was occupied 
by Burgoyne; and the British remained in possession until 1788, after 
the close of the war. 

Near the north end of the lake, among other places noted by your 
Commission, is Windmill Point, so named from a mill and settlement 
built there by the French in I 73 1 . The Canadian boundary line runs 
about two and a half miles north of this point. An interesting associa- 
tion relates to a visit made to this place in the autumn of 1 766 by Sir 
Henry Moore, Governor of New York Colony, and Sir Guy Carleton, 
Governor of the Province of Quebec. Their object was to ascertain 
where the boundary ran which had been fixed by royal order at the 
45th degree. *' After encountering many difficulties," the Governor of 
New York subsequently wrote to the Lords of Trade (November 7, 
1766), ** we fixed the limits on the River Sorell [now known as the 
Sorel, or Richelieu, the outlet of Lake Champlain], about two and a 
half miles below Windmill Point, which is further to the northward 
than we imagined to find it from the observations which were said to 
be made there by the French some few years ago." 

During this visit of the two Governors at Windmill Point they were 
visited by a number of French gentlemen from Quebec, who sought a 
confirmation of their rights in seigniories granted to them before the 
conquest of Canada, and now found to extend south of the Canadian 
boundary line. The adjustment of these old seigniorial grants, and 
questions relating thereto, ran through many years, and constitutes a 
considerable chapter in the international history of this region. The 




Copyright and by courtesy of Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C. 

SENATOR ELIHU ROOT OF NEW YORK 




HON. JACOB M. DICKINSON 
Secretary of War 



The Champlain Tercentenary 25 

boundary line was fixed by an Order in Council (" Report of the Lords 
of the Committee of Privy Council "), August 12, 1 768. 

Your commissioners made their first landing at Sandy Point, on Isle 
La Motte, the site of the first French settlement in the valley; thence, 
after dinner at the home of the Hon. Nelson W. Fisk, Isle La Motte, 
going to Burlington, where the Commissions were the guests of the 
Burlington Commercial Club and of the Ethan Allen Club. Various 
points of interest in the city and vicinity were visited, and the following 
day as many of the commissioners as could arrange went by steamer to 
Crown Point and afterward to Ticonderoga, where the sites and ruined 
fortifications were inspected. 

CONFERENCE WITH THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

On December 4, 1907. the Hon. Henry W, Hill and the Hon. 
Frank S. Witherbee, of the above-named sub-committee, visited Wash- 
ington, where Messrs. Lynn M. Hays and Walter H. Crockett of the 
Vermont Commission joined them in a visit to the Secretary of State, 
the Hon. Elihu Root, with whom a conference was held, at which there 
were also present, besides the commissioners. Senators Proctor and 
Dillingham and Representative David J. Foster. 

The commissioners laid the proposed plan of celebration and com- 
memoration before the Secretary of State, with a view of ascertaining 
the action which he would approve in the matter on the part of the 
Government of the United States. The Secretary inquired what New 
York State and Vermont were likely to do in the way of appropriations ; 
and was informed that both States were expected to make suitable 
appropriations, and that it was deemed important that representatives of 
the Governments of France, of Great Britain and Canada be invited 
through the Federal Government to be present as its guests at such cele- 
bration. 

Secretary Root expressed his approval. In his view the Federal 
Government might with propriety invite such representatives; and he 



26 State of New York 

stated his willingness to recommend to the President that a suitable 
appropriation be made for their entertainment. 

The Secretary of State further expressed to the commissioners his 
most cordial approval of the proposed celebration, and deep interest in 
it, especially on account of its international features, and because of its 
historical character, illustrating as it would, the periods of discovery and 
settlement, and the development of American institutions. 

ACTION TAKEN AT ALBANY. DECEMBER 21. 1907 

At a joint meeting of the New York and Vermont Commissions, held 
at Albany, December 21, 1907, the following resolutions, which had 
been adopted by the special sub-committee and reported to a meeting 
of the whole Commission at the Executive Mansion, Governor Hughes 
presiding, were adopted: 

Resolved, That it is the judgment of the sub-committee of the Lake Champlain 
Tercentenary Commission that the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain 
and the historic events following during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, and 
also of the War of 1812, be celebrated in an appropriate and fitting manner in 
July, 1909, in the valley of Lake Champlain, with appropriate exercises to be 
determined upon by the Commission having that matter in charge. 

Resolved, That a permanent memorial to commemorate the discovery by Samuel 
Champlain be erected at some point in the Champlain Valley ; and that the State of 
New York make suitable appropriation for such celebration; and also a suitable 
appropriation toward defraying the cost of said memorial, sharing therein with the 
State of Vermont and any other contributors thereto. 

Resolved, That a suitable memorial be prepared on the part of the Commission 
of the State of New York and on the part of the Commission of the State of Ver- 
mont, if they concur, to be presented through the Secretary of State to the Federal 
Government, requesting that the Federal Government, through the Department of 
State, or a commission, as it may decide, participate in the proposed celebration; 
and that the Federal Government be requested to make suitable appropriation there- 
for; and that the Federal Government be requested to invite the participation of 
Canada; and also to invite and entertain representatives of the Republic of France, 
the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 27 



SUNDRY SUGGESTIONS 

In free discussion among the members of the Commissions it was 
developed that in the judgment of the Commissions the proposed cele- 
bration should include exercises to be held at Ticonderoga, Crown 
Point, Plattsburgh, Burlington, Isle La Motte, and, if found feasible, at 
a convenient point in Canada. Other suggestions were : 

That on Sunday, July 4, 1 909, religious services of a character appro- 
priate to the anniversary be held, if possible, at suitable points, especially 
at Cliff Haven, at Isle La Motte, and in the cathedral at Burlington, 
under the auspices of the Roman Catholic church. 

Also, that said celebration shall include such musical features as may 
be found desirable, and, if possible, an aquatic pageant, with fireworks, 
electrical display, and other appropriate features. It is understood and 
expected that the annual meetings of regattas of canoe, motor-boat or 
yacht clubs may be held at this time on Lake Champlain, contributing 
attractive features to the celebration. 

It was further suggested, with the approval of the members present, 
that the fraternal orders represented in the Champlain Valley be invited 
to join in the celebration and to appear in regalia in appropriate parades 
as opportunity may offer. 

After some discussion as to the practicability of participation by 
patriotic societies, it was voted that the Secretary of the New York 
Commission procure data relative to the patriotic societies represented 
in the Champlain Valley and submit it at a future meeting of the Com- 
mission, that the Commission may act with more adequate information 
on this subject. 

A MEMORIAL VOLUME RECOMMENDED 

A further suggestion, which appeals with force to your Commission, 
is that there should be provided for, to be published by the State of New 
York, a suitable memorial volume, to be issued as soon as practicable 
after the celebration, which shall contain a general report of your Com- 
mission; a report of the celebration and memorial exercises; a suitable 



28 State of New York 

historical sketch of the Champlain region; a bibhography of the works 
of Champlain and works relating to him; a cartography of Lake 
Champlain; and such other features as may be determined upon. 

APPROVAL OF THE EXECUTIVE EXPRESSED IN THE ANNUAL 
MESSAGE TO THE LEGISLATURE 

That the Governor of New York State heartily approves of the pro- 
posed celebration is shown in his message transmitted to the Legislature 
on January 1 st last. 

" Fitting preparation," he said, *' should be made for the celebration 
in the year 1909 of the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake 
Champlain. This," he adds, " is an event of interstate and international 
importance, and a Commission representing this State is co-operating with 
a Vermont Commission in perfecting suitable plans. It is hoped that the 
Federal Government will give assistance, and that through its offices the 
Government of the Dominion of Canada and the Republic of France 
will be invited to participate." 

THE VERMONT COMMISSION 

The Vermont Commission, it should be noted, was created by the act 
of the Vermont Legislature, session of 1906-1907. It is officially 
designated " The Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission of Ver- 
mont," and is constituted as follows: Chairman, His Excellency the 
Hon. Fletcher D. Proctor, Governor of Vermont; Chairman pro iem., 
Walter E. Howard, Middlebury ; Secretary, Lynn M. Hays, No. 196 
Main street, Burlington; and Messrs. Horace W. Bailey, Newbury; 
M. D. McMahon, Burlington; R. W. McCuen, Vergennes; and 
Walter H. Crockett, St. Albans. This Commission, it may be observed, 
is a permanent organization for the accomplishment of the object for 
which it was created ; with power to enter into and perfect arrangements 
with a similar Commission representing New York State, when it shall 
have been created; and to plan, superintend and carry out the proposed 
celebration and erection of a memorial on the part of Vermont. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 29 



POPULAR INTEREST IN THE MATTER 

As the public, not only in New York State and Vermont, but in 
neighboring States as well, have learned of these preliminary prepara- 
tions, great interest has been shown in the matter. 

In Vermont the press very generally has joined in expressions of 
approval of the project. The Vermont Commission has been prompt 
to signify its readiness to co-operate in every way possible with New 
York. Its sub-committee, consisting of the Hon. Walter E. Howard, 
Chairman; Messrs. Lynn M. Hays and Walter H. Crockett, have 
reported a resolution in which they " recommend to the Vermont Com- 
mission that the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlam 
by Samuel Champlain be celebrated in a manner fitting the occasion by 
the State of Vermont, acting in conjunction with the State of New 
York." The full Vermont Commission have also planned to organize 
a publicity bureau for the purpose of creating sentiment in the interests 
of the proposed celebration. 

In New York State, also, the press in many sections has shown marked 
interest in and approval of the project. So, too, have various patriotic 
and historical societies. 

ACTION OF PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES 
The following resolutions, adopted by the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, Buffalo Chapter, on November 22, 1907, were officially 
endorsed by the New York State Conference, National Society 
Daughters of the American Revolution, and in substance have been 
adopted by several other of the patriotic societies having chapters in this 
State: 

Whereas, Buffalo Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, has learned 
with deep interest of the preliminary steps taken by the State of New York, regard- 
ing a contemplated celebration jointly with the State of Vermont and Province of 
Quebec, of the discovery and first exploration of Lake Champlain, said suggested 
celebration to occur on the 300th anniversary of the discovery, in July, 1909; 
and 



30 State of New York 



Whereas, We regard this discovery, and the events flowing therefrom, as of 
paramount importance in the history of this State. In the Colonial, as in the 
Revolutionary period and that of the War of 1812, the valley of Lake Champlain 
was the theater of many stirring operations and decisive engagem.ents. With its 
beautiful waters, its hills and headlands, its storied islands and ruined fortifications, 
the annals and traditions of the Daughters of the American Revolution are inti- 
mately woven; therefore 

Resolved, That we, members of the Buffalo Chapter, Daughters of the American 
Revolution, hereby urge upon the Legislature of the State of New York the desira- 
bility of heartily endorsing the proposed plan of celebration; 

Resolved, That in our view it is especially desirable that in connection with the 
proposed celebration, one or more of the historic sites in the Champlain Valley be 
acquired by the State of New York for the suitable preservation of its landmarks 
and the enjoyment of the public; or that, if this should not prove feasible, that the 
erection of some permanent memorial be included in the action of the State. 

The following letter from the Secretary of the Society of Colonial 
Wars in the State of New York, further indicates the interest that has 
been aroused and the co-operation which awaits the action of your 
honorable body : 

Society of the Colonial Wars in the State of New York, 
Office of the Secretary, Room 62, 

45 William Street, New York, 

February) 20, 1908. 

Hon. Henry W. Hill, Chairman of the Sub-Committee, Nenf York Lake 
Champlain Tercentenary Commission, Senate Chamber, Albany, N. Y.: 

Dear Sir. — I have the honor to transmit to you the following resolution adopted 
by this Society through the Council: 

Whereas, The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York has been 
informed of the proposed celebration jointly by the States of New York and 
Vermont, and the Province of Quebec, in commemoration of the discovery of 
Lake Champlain, to occur on the 300th anniversary thereof in July, 1909; 

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Society of Colonial Wars in the State 
of New York hereby declares that it is in hearty sympathy with such proposed 
celebration and that it is its intention to hold a reunion at Lake Champlain in 



The Champlain Tercentenary 31 

connection therewith in July, 1909, and that it appoint a committee to confer as 
to the management therefor. 

Yours very truly, 

Henry Gansevoort Sanford, 

Secretary. 

Other organizations as well, especially the historical and patriotic 
societies represented in the Champlain Valley, have expressed their 
ardent interest in the project and willingness to co-operate as may be 
desired. 

HISTORIC IMPORTANCE OF THE CHAMPLAIN REGION 

Your honorable body are familiar in general with the historic 
importance of the region in which it is proposed to hold this celebration 
and erect a memorial. It may be permitted, however, on the part of 
your Commission to direct especial attention in this report to a few 
features of its history, which endow the Champlain Valley with extraor- 
dinary importance in the annals of New York State. 

The entrance into the valley which now bears his name by the great 
explorer, Samuel Champlain, in July, 1609, constitutes the opening of 
the first chapter in the history of New York State. 

It antedated by some months the discovery and exploration of the 
Hudson river, and it resulted in a sequence of events extending over a 
century and a half, in delivering the region which is now the great com- 
monwealth of New York from its condition of aboriginal darkness. 
After Champlain came the missionary, and with him and after him there 
came the trader; and presently from Lake Champlain to the Niagara 
river the power of France strove with that of England for the control of 
what is now New York State. 

Your Commission would call your particular attention to the extraor- 
dinary significance of the anniversary which it is desired to celebrate. 

In discovering the lake that bears his name, Champlain also dis- 
covered the region that became New York State. 



32 State of New York 



He was the first white man to behold any portion of our State, or to 
set foot therein. 

His visit in July, 1 609, was not only the beginning of recorded his- 
tory in New York State, but of a new era for the Western continent. 

FIRST CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IN VERMONT 

For many years after this initial voyage the waters of the Champlain 
Valley were the highway of many expeditions notable in Colonial 
history. None was more notable than that which in the summer of 1 666 
erected on Isle La Motte the old Fort Ste. Anne, and set up there the 
first Christian altar in what is now the State of Vermont. Throughout 
the following years of Indian warfare many a desperate enterprise 
occurred in this valley; and later, as the English colonists to the South 
found themselves in opposition to the power of France in Canada, the 
passing years saw an endless succession of war expeditions up and down 
the valley. 

CROWN POINT AND TICONDEROGA 

Towards the end of the period of French control of the Champlain 
region, in 1731, the French made their most southern fortifications at 
what is now known as Crown Point. When your Commission visited 
this historic site, it found, in a most interesting state of preservation, not 
only the ruins of British military constructions, but of the earlier French 
outlines. The territory covered by these landmarks, or identified with 
them, passed from the ownership of New York State to Union and 
Columbia Colleges. The property was partitioned in 1812, and in 1828 
the trustees of Columbia College deeded the property to Sylvester 
Churchill. It subsequently passed through various hands, and is now 
owned by Mr. Fred Nadeau, who resides in the neighborhood. 

Similarly at Ticonderoga, where your Commission carefully inspected 
the ruins, one finds reminders alike of American, of British and of 
French occupancy. The title of Ticonderoga may be said to have been 
successively vested in the Indian aborigines, in the French down to 1 759, 




By courtesy of Bernard 



AMBASSADOR J. J. JUSSERAND 




Copyright and by courtesy of E. Chickering & Co., Boston 



RT. HON. JAMES BRYCE 
British Ambassador 



The Champlain Tercentenary 33 

in the English to 1 775, with changing fortunes to the end of the Revolu- 
tion; then (after perhaps a period of Federal control), in the State of 
New York, the Regents of the University, and Columbia and Union 
Colleges. In 1818, Mr. William F. Pell purchased the property of 
some five hundred acres, including the old ruins and fortifications, from 
the two colleges mentioned, since which date it has been in the posses- 
sion of his family, the ownership at present being vested in five of his 
descendants. 

HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS 

That the places included in the proposed celebration are rich in his- 
toric associations may be judged by citing a few of the many significant 
facts that might be presented. 

Sandy Point on Isle La Motte, near the outlet of the lake, holds the 
ruins of Fort Ste. Anne, the first spot in which mass was said in the 
present State of Vermont. Its military associations under the French 
include the names of de Tracy, Levis, Bourlamaque and Bougainville. 
Of even more significance is it in the annals of the Roman Catholic 
church. The great missionary, Dollier de Casson, ministered to the gar- 
rison there in 1667; and later three famous Jesuits, Fathers Fremin, 
Pierron and Bruyas, labored there. In 1892 the site of the old fort was 
bought by the Rev. de Goesbriand, first bishop of Burlington, with a 
further purchase in 1895. A chapel with a statue of Ste. Anne, a great 
cross and other structures were erected and blessed. It is a point of 
religious pilgrimage, and yearly on the feast of Ste. Anne, July 26th, 
thousands of devout pilgrims visit the spot to pray at the shrine, where 
are preserved relics of Ste. Anne and the Virgin. 

IN DEFENSE OF NEW YORK'S RIGHTS 

Of surpassing interest to the American student and an especial source 

of pride to the resident of New York State, are the expeditions sent out 

by the feeble Colony of New York to maintain their rights against the 

encroachments or murderous incursions of the French and Indian allies 

4 



34 State of New York 

to the north. When these enemies burned Schenectady and slaughtered 
its inhabitants in February, 1690, New York was stirred to a just 
retahation ; and it was through the Champlain Valley that John Schuyler 
(grandfather of Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary fame) led his little 
force, in a fleet of bark canoes, against the enemy in Canada. His men 
Were few, but they struck a sturdy blow for the rights of New York. 

In 1691, Major Peter Schuyler led still another expedition against 
the hostile settlements, also by the Lake Champlain route. Numerous 
other expeditions followed, in subsequent years. The annals of Colonial 
New York show how, time and time again, Lake Champlain was both 
highway and battle-ground where the rights of New York were defended 
and established. 

EXPLOITS IN THREE WARS 

Lake Champlain throughout its whole length was the theater of 
important engagements and expeditions during the Revolutionary War. 
One needs but to mention Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, Seth Warner 
at Crown Point, Benedict Arnold at St. John's. The battle which the 
latter fought October 11,1 776, near Valcour Island, off Plattsburgh, 
was one of the earliest naval battles in our history, and one of the most 
heroic. The wreck of one of Arnold's vessels, the Royal Savage^ still 
lies near Valcour Island. 

Plattsburgh and Cumberland Bay are memorable for engagements 
in the War of 1812, both on land and lake. Here it was, September 1 1 , 
1814, that Macdonough won a brilliant victory over the British 
squadron under Downie. It was one of the decisive engagements which 
brought that war to a close with credit to the Americans. 

As one passes up the lake to the south, the points of historic significance 
multiply; and recall, besides the later wars, the old French war with 
the exploits of '* Rogers the Ranger ;" the defense of Ticonderoga by 
Montcalm (July 8, 1 758) , when Abercroniby stormed the works only 
to retire, crestfallen and exhausted, with a loss of some 2,000 men. The 
next year, again in July (23d) British arms at Ticonderoga under 
Amherst scored a victory, and virtually ended the dominion of the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 35 

French in the valley; and British it remained until that May morning 
(the 10th) in 1775, when Col. Ethan Allen made his sudden advent 
and demanded its surrender " in the name of the Great Jehovah and the 
Continental Congress." 

Crown Point, the old French Fort Frederic, is peculiarly a landmark 
to the student, for it was not only the southernmost outpost of the French 
of Canada, but as early as 1 742 it was reported to be, *' with the excep- 
tion of Quebec, the strongest work held by the French in Canada." 
Furthermore, it was of great strategic importance, for it commanded the 
open highway between French and English North America. Aban- 
doned by the French in 1759, it was occupied by Gen. Amherst 
(August 1st), who gathered there 15,000 troops, and rebuilt it, stronger 
than before. During the Revolution the Americans held it until Bur- 
goyne with 7,000 troops invested it (June 27, 1 777), when the Ameri- 
cans abandoned it and retired to Ticonderoga. 

LANDMARKS THAT SHOULD BE PRESERVED 

That the preservation of historic sites within our own boundaries 
meets the approval of the American people, and is a source of satisfac- 
tion to them, is proved by innumerable instances. Never do we hear 
any advocacy in favor of abandoning sites already acquired and suitably 
cared for, either by State or Nation. But very often do we hear regret 
expressed that more sites, rich in historic associations, have not been thus 
acquired and safeguarded for the future. 

Of no points in New York State is this regret oftener expressed, than 
in regard to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Indeed, the scenic beauties 
of these places would win for them approval as public parks, even had 
they no historic associations. But in addition to their great natural 
beauty, and comparative accessibility for large numbers of people, they 
offer to the visitor a wealth of historic association equaled by few if any 
other spots in our State. 

The ruins at Crown Point are the best preserved examples in 
America of the military construction of their day and kind. 



36 State of New York 



WHAT IT IS PROPOSED TO CELEBRATE 

In the view of your Commission, the events above mentioned are a 
few of the many occurring in the valley of Lake Champlain which make 
it a worthy scene of a notable memorial celebration. We would cele- 
brate the tercentenary of its discovery; but that anniversary, which falls 
July, 1 909, is also a fitting occasion for recalling, in speech and written 
record, in festival and in pageant, some of the other nation-building 
events in the three centuries of history of that region. For several of 
those events, as our report has shown, the month of July is the anni- 
versary time, as well as of that first voyage through the lake by the 
explorer. In 1909, too, we would celebrate the 100th anniversary of 
the introduction of steam navigation on Lake Champlain. For more 
than a century this lake has been a part of New York State's system of 
improved waterways, and for 89 years it has been joined by canal with 
the canal system of the State and the Hudson river. 

LAKE CHAMPLAIN IN LITERATURE 

One needs but to turn to the literature of travel and description to find 
abundant records of the Champlain Valley in the narratives of travelers, 
especially Europeans. For many years, because of its beauty, its his- 
tory, and its directness or convenience, the tour through Lake Champlain 
was a favorite one with foreign as well as American travelers. Peter 
Kalm, the famous Swedish botanist, describes at length his visit to the 
valley in 1 749. Isaac Weld and John Maude, English artists, who 
traveled in America at the close of the eighteenth century, describe it at 
length. Dr. Timothy Dwight, the famous president of Yale College, 
made elaborate record of its conditions as he found them in 1 798. 

Shortly after the close of the War of 1812, an English officer, Lieu- 
tenant Francis Hall, of the 14th Light Dragoons, traveled through the 
Champlain Valley and recorded with unusual detail the state of things 
as they then were. His narrative, printed in London in 1818, is a valued 
source of information for this particular period. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 37 

In 1842, Charles Dickens enjoyed the beauties of the lake tour, and 
in his *' American Notes," in marked contrast to many of his critical 
comments, he wrote in superlative praise of the steamboat service that 
he found on Lake Champlain. 

PROGRESS OF THE CHAMPLAIN REGION 

These and many other travelers who have written of Lake Cham- 
plain have left a valuable record of conditions as they were at different 
periods. We have a picture of the lake when its shores were practically 
all wilderness. We see the bark canoe followed in turn by the rude 
batteau, the heavy sloop, then by various sail-craft; later by the pioneer 
steamboat, and finally by the era of modern travel and conveyance, 
whether for passenger or freight, whether for business or pleasure, with 
all the useful appliances of steam and electricity. 

Even more striking has been the evolution of the shores, where the 
remote pioneer settlements have been succeeded by scores of thriving 
communities. 

The Champlain Valley embraces a populous and progressive portion 
of the Empire State. Our citizens in that valley have a just pride in its 
past, and are ready to promote in any way possible, such commemorative 
celebration as the State may determine upon. 

NEW YORK AND CHAMPLAIN 

New York State has never erected any memorial to the great explorer 
who first reached her shores. 

So far as your Commission is aware, the only monument to Samuel 
Champlain that has been erected in the United States is the modest but 
creditable statue unveiled in the village of Champlain in this State on 
July 4, 1907. The exercises included impressive religious services, a 
parade, military drills, etc., and a formal unveiling of the statue. Thou- 
sands of visitors shared in the exercises, especially those of French- 
American ancestry, whose pride and enthusiasm indicate the ardent 



38 State of New York 

indorsement which may be expected from this source for the proposed 
tercentenary celebration. 

CHAMPLAIN ANNIVERSARIES ELSEWHERE 

Already the Dominion of Canada is preparing for a fitting celebra- 
tion, the coming summer, of the 300th anniversary of the founding of 
Quebec. 

Your honorable body will recall that the Maritime Provinces of 
Canada held a most successful celebration in June, 1 904, of the 300th 
anniversary of the founding of Port Royal and other events associated 
with Champlain, who first entered the Bay of Fundy in June, 1604. 
The memorial and festive features of this tercentenary celebration, so 
happily carried out by the people of New Brunswick, awakened very 
general interest. 

The events of 1608, which the Dominion of Canada proposes to 
celebrate in 1908, stimulate and extend this popular interest, and direct 
attention in a marked degree to the historical importance of those events 
of 1609 which we recommend for distinguished observance by New 
York State in 1909. 

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF 1909 

Your Commission respectfully submit the foregoing report to the con- 
sideration of the Legislature of New York. The anniversary, which we 
desire shall be suitably observed, has great significance. Important as it is 
to the student of history, it makes a wider and stronger appeal to that 
large body of our citizens whose forefathers fought in the wars of the 
Champlain region, or were among the pioneers who transformed it from 
the wilderness. 

But chief of all the considerations which we urge upon your attention 
is the international character of the proposed celebration. The history 
of the Champlain valley belongs to the history of three great nations, 
whose cordial relations we believe will be promoted by the suitable 
observance of this significant date. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 39 



RECOMMENDATION 

To that end your Commission, after careful investigation, reaches the 
conclusion that the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Cham- 
plain, should be suitably celebrated by New York State; and to that 
end we respectfully recommend the enactment of the following bill : 

An Act to Provide for the Celebration of the Tercentenary of 
THE Discovery of Lake Champlain, the Appointment of a 
Commission, Prescribing its Powers and Duties and Making an 
Appropriation Therefor. 

The People of the State of NeTi> York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do 
enact as folloivs: 

Section 1 . The governor shall appoint five citizens of this state, the president 
pro tempore of the senate shall appoint three members of the senate, and the speaker 
of the assembly shall appoint three members of the assembly, who shall constitute 
and be known as the commission for the public celebration of the tercentenary of 
the discovery of Lake Champlain. The members of such commission shall serve 
without pay but shall receive their necessary traveling and other expenses. 

Sec. 2. The object of such commission shall be to plan and conduct a public 
celebration of the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel Cham- 
plain in the month of July, sixteen hundred and nine, and such other historical 
events following such discovery as such commission may deem of general public 
interest or worthy of commemoration. 

Sec. 3. Such commission shall organize by electing a chairman, secretary, 
treasurer and such other officers as it may deem necessary; and may adopt such 
rules and regulations as it may deem proper for carrying into effect the purposes 
for which it is created, and shall have power to enter into negotiations and 
co-operate with the state of Vermont, the government of the United States, the 
Dominion of Canada and the Province of Quebec, or either or any of them, and 
with the various patriotic and historical societies of the state and nation, in such 
celebration and may appoint committees of citizens from the various municipalities 
of the state. Such commission shall also have the power, either by itself or in 
co-operation with the state of Vermont, the government of the United States, the 
Dominion of Canada and the Province of Quebec, or any or either of them, to 
erect a suitable permanent memorial to the said Samuel Champlain, in the valley 



40 State of New York 



of Lake Champlain. Such commission may also appoint committees from its mem- 
bers and may employ such assistants as it may deem necessary, fix their compensa- 
tion and define their powers and duties within the provisions of this act. 

Sec. 4. Such commission shall audit and pay all bills and expenses incurred 
under this act and file the vouchers therefor with the comptroller of the state; keep 
an accurate record of all its proceedings and transactions, and shall submit to the 
legislature of nineteen hundred and ten a full and complete report thereof. It 
shall have no power or authority to contract for the expenditure of any sum in 
excess of the amount herein appropriated, except such funds as have actually been 
paid into its treasury by public or private contribution for the erection of a memorial 
as herein provided, and it shall keep an accurate account of the receipt and dis- 
bursement of such contributions, if any, and include the same in its report to the 
legislature. 

Sec. 5. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as 
may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys not otherwise appro- 
priated, for the purposes of this act, and payments shall be made by the state 
treasurer to the treasurer of such commission on the warrant of the state comptroller 
on the requisition of the chairman of such commission. In addition to the sum 
herein appropriated, the commission is authorized and empowered to receive and 
expend public and private contributions for any of the purposes hereinbefore set 
forth. 

Sec. 6. This act shall take effect immediately. 

The foregoing is respectfully submitted. 

Charles E. Hughes. 
Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler. 
Henry W. Hill. 
John C. R. Taylor. 
J. W. Wadsworth, Jr. 
Alonson T. Dominy. 
James A. Foley. 
Frank S. Witherbee. 
John H. Booth. 



Frank H. Severance, 

Secretary. 
Albany, March 23, 1908. 




HON. RODOLPHE LEMIEUX 




SIR LOMER GOUIN 




Copyright and by courtesy of G. V. Buck, Washington, D. C. 



LIEUTENANT DE VAISSEAU BENOIST D'AZY 
OF THE FRENCH EMBASSY 



IV. FEDERAL RECOGNITION AND AID 

41 



IV. FEDERAL RECOGNITION AND AID 

NOTE HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE of the joint action of the first New 
York Commission and the Vermont Commission, prior to March, 
1908. On December 4, 1907. Messrs. Hill and Witherbee of the 
New York Commission, and Hays and Crockett of the Vermont Com- 
mission, visited the Secretary of State, the Hon. Elihu Root, at Wash- 
ington. At the conference which he granted to the Commissioners were 
also present Senators Proctor and Dillingham, and Representative David 
J. Foster. Mr. Root listened attentively to the project as outlined to him, 
and expressed his approval and his willingness to recommend a suitable 
appropriation for the entertainment of representatives of Great Britain 
and France. Under date of April 10, 1908, a joint memorial, signed 
by all the members of both Commissions, was sent to the Secretary of 
State. It embodied the report and recommendations of the first New 
York Commission, as already printed in these pages. The memorial 
stated that a sub-committee of the Vermont Commission had called on 
President Roosevelt, who gave to the project his hearty support. It 
further stated that the amount of appropriation recommended by the 
New York Senate Finance Committee was $50,000, or so much thereof 
as might be necessary, in place of $100,000 as stated in the first draft 
of the bill ; and it concluded with the following request : 

In view of the international character of the event which it is proposed to 
celebrate, your commission feel that it is desirable to include in the celebration, as 
guests of the United States, representatives of France, Great Britain, and Canada. 
It is also especially desired, and your memorialists most respectfully ask, that suit- 
able provision be made for attendance at said celebration, or participation therein, 
of such civil, military, and naval representatives of the government of the United 
States as may be hereafter designated. In accordance with the suggestion made 
on the occasion of the visit of the sub-committee representing the two states, that 
the matter of inviting and entertaining representatives of France, Great Britain, and 
Canada be under the direction of the Department of State, and that the United 

43 



44 State of New York 

States government make adequate provision therefor, vv^e, the undersigned members 
of the two commissions, hereby respectfully request that you lay this matter before 
the President and Congress of the United States, with such recommendation as may 
seem advisable. 

In the hope that action may be taken at the present session of Congress, we do 
respectfully subscribe ourselves. * * * 

The memorial was referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, but because of the lateness of the date no action was taken at 
that session. At the second session of the 60th Congress, February 15, 
1909, Mr. Foster of Vermont, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
submitted a report which reviewed the action already taken by the two 
States most concerned, and recited at length the facts which were 
deemed to warrant a Federal appropriation for purposes of entertain- 
ment in connection with the proposed celebration. On the recommenda- 
tion of the committee, a bill was passed, appropriating $20,000 for the 
purposes specified. 




H. WALLACE KNAPP 

Chairman of New York Commission 



V. LEGISLATION AND ORGANIZATION 

45 




HENRY W. HILL 

Secretary of New York Commission 



V. LEGISLATION AND ORGANIZATION 

THE LEGISLATIVE ACT which created a commission endowed with 
power to organize and carry out the proposed celebration, became 
a law April 22, 1908, and is Chapter 149 of the Laws of 1908, as 
follows ; 

CHAPTER 149. LAWS OF 1908 

An Act to Provide for the Celebration of the Tercentenary of 
THE Discovery of Lake Champlain, the Appointment of a Com- 
mission, Prescribing its Powers and Duties and Making an 
Appropriation Therefor. 

Became a law April 22, 1908, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three-fifths being present. 

The People of the State of Nen> York, represented in Senate and Assembly, 
do enact as folloivs: 

Section 1 . The governor shall appoint five citizens of this state, the presi- 
dent pro tempore of the senate shall appoint three members of the senate, and 
the speaker of the assembly shall appoint three members of the assembly, who 
shall constitute and be known as the Lake Champlain tercentenary commission. 
The members of such commission shall serve without pay but shall receive their 
actual and necessary traveling and other expenses, in the performance of their 
official duties. 

Sec. 2. The object of such commission shall be to plan and conduct a 
public celebration of the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by 
Samuel Champlain in the month of July, sixteen hundred and nine. 

Sec. 3. Such commission shall organize by electing a chairman, secretary, 
treasurer and such other officers as it may deem necessary; and may adopt such 
rules and regulations as it may deem proper for carrying into effect the purposes 
for which it is created, and shall have power to enter into negotiations and 
co-operate with the state of Vermont, the government of the United States, the 
Dominion of Canada and the province of Quebec, or either or any of them. Such 
commission shall also have the power, either by itself or in co-operation with the 

47 



48 State of New York 



slate of Vermont, the government of the United States, the Dominion of Canada 
and the province of Quebec, or any or either of them, to erect a suitable perma- 
nent memorial to the said Samuel Champlain, in the valley of Lake Champlain. 
Such commission may also appoint committees from its members and may employ 
such assistants as it may deem necessary, fix their compensation and define their 
powers and duties within the provisions of any appropriation made for the 
commission. 

Sec. 4. Moneys appropriated for the commission shall be paid by the 
treasurer on the warrant of the comptroller, issued upon a requisition signed by the 
president and secretary of the commission, accompanied by an estimate of the 
expenses for the payment of which the money so drawn is to be applied, and 
vouchers for such expenditures shall be filed with the comptroller, who shall audit 
the same. The commission shall keep an accurate record of all its proceedings 
and transactions, and shall submit to the legislature of nineteen hundred and ten a 
full and complete report thereof. Within thirty days thereafter the commission 
shall make a verified report to the comptroller of the disbursements made by it 
and return to the treasurer the unexpended balance of any money drawn in pur- 
suance of this act. It shall have no power or authority to contract for the expendi- 
ture of any sum in excess of the amount herein appropriated, except such funds as 
have actually been paid into its treasury by public or private contribution for the 
erection of a memorial as herein provided, and it shall keep an accurate account of 
the receipt and disbursement of such contributions, if any, and include the same 
in its report to the legislature. 

Sec. 5. This act shall take effect immediately. 

Chapter 465 of the Laws of 1 908, being a general appropriation act 
for the support of government, contained the following provision: 

For the Lake Champlain tercentenary commission, thirty-five thousand dollars 
($35,000), which shall be available on the first day of October, nineteen hundred 
eight, and the further sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000), which shall 
become available on and after January first, nineteen hundred nine. 

By Chapter 433 of the Laws of 1909, there was also appropriated the 
sum of $75,000 for the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission and 
in that chapter was inserted the following provision: 

Any unexpended balance of such appropriation, after payment of the expenses 
of said commission, and any moneys derived from the sale of any property held by 
such commission, as well as all funds paid into its treasury by public or private 




WALTER C. WITHERBEE 

Treasurer of New \'ork Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 49 

contributions for the erection of a permanent memorial to Samuel de Champlain in 
the valley of Lake Champlain, shall be aggregated and kept as a special fund to be 
known as the Samuel de Champlain Memorial Fund, to be used by said commission 
in co-operation with the State of Vermont, the government of the United States, 
the Dominion of Canada, the Province of Quebec, and various patriotic societies, 
or any or either of them, in the erection of a suitable permanent memorial to Samuel 
de Champlain in the valley of Lake Champlain. 

Subsequently — March 18, 1910 — the act of 1908 above printed 
was amended as follows : 

CHAPTER 44. LAWS OF 1910 

An Act to Amend Chapter One Hundred and Forty-nine of the 
Laws of Nineteen Hundred and Eight, Entitled " An Act to 
Provide for the Celebration of the Tercentenary of the 
Discovery of Lake Champlain, the Appointment of a Commis- 
sion. Prescribing its Powers and Duties and Making an Appro- 
priation Therefor." in Relation to the Power of the Com- 
mission AND Extending the Time for Making its Report to the 
Legislature. 

Became a law March 18. 1910. with the approval of the Governor. Passed, 
three-fifths being present. 

The People of the State of New Yorff, represented in Senate and Assembly, 
do enact as foUorvs: 

Section I . Section four of chapter one hundred and forty-nine of the laws 
of nineteen hundred and eight, entitled " An act to provide for the celebration of 
the tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain, the appointment of a com- 
mission, prescribing its powers and duties and making an appropriation therefor," 
is hereby amended to read as follows: 

Sec. 4. Moneys appropriated for the commission, shall be paid by the 
treasurer on the warrant of the comptroller, issued upon a requisition signed by 
the president and secretary of the commission, accompanied by an estimate of the 
expenses for the payment of which the money so drawn is to be applied, and 
vouchers for such expenditures shall be filed with the comptroller, who shall audit 
the same. Any unexpended balance of such appropriation after payment of the 
expenses of said commission, and any moneys derived from the sale of any 
property held by such commission, as well as all funds paid into its treasury by 
public or private contributions for the erection of a permanent memorial to Samuel 
5 



50 State of New York 



de Champlain in the valley of Lake Champlain, shall be aggregated and kept as a 
special fund to be known as the Samuel de Champlain Memorial Fund, to be 
used by said commission acting independently or in co-operation with the state 
of Vermont, the government of the United States, the Dominion of Canada, the 
province of Quebec, and various patriotic societies, or any or either of them, in the 
erection of a suitable permanent memorial to Samuel de Champlain in the valley 
of Lake Champlain. The commission shall keep an accurate record of all its 
proceedings and transactions, and shall submit to the legislature of nineteen hun- 
dred and eleven a full and complete report thereof. Within thirty days thereafter 
the commission shall make a verified report to the comptroller of the disbursements 
made by it. It shall have no power or authority to contract for the expenditure 
of any sum in excess of the amount heretofore appropriated, except such funds as 
have actually been paid into its treasury by public or private contribution for the 
erection of a memorial as herein provided, and it shall keep an accurate account of 
the receipts and disbursements of such contributions, if any, and include the same 
in its report to the legislature. 

Sec. 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 

See supplementary chapter 181 of the laws of 1911 on pp. 349-350 infra. 

In compliance with the statute. Governor Hughes appointed, as mem- 
bers of said Commission, the following : 

Walter C. Witherbee Port Henry, N. Y. 

John H. Booth Plattsburgh. N. Y. 

John B. Riley Plattsburgh. N. Y. 

Louis C. LafoNTAINE Champlain, N. Y. 

HoWLAND Pell New York City. 

The president pro tempore of the Senate appointed the following: 

H. Wallace Knapp. Mooers, N. Y. 

Henry W. Hill Buffalo, N. Y. 

James J. Frawley New York City. 

The Speaker of the Assembly appointed the following: 

James Shea Lake Placid, N. Y. 

James A. Foley New York City. 

Alonson T. Dominy. Beekmantown, N. Y. 

The Hon. Alonson T. Dominy died on September 9, 1908, without 
having served on this Commission, and the Hon. William R. Weaver 




JAMES J. FRAWLEY 
Member of New York Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 51 

of Peru was appointed in his stead. At a subsequent meeting, on motion 
of Commissioner Riley, seconded by Commissioner Booth, the following 
minute on the death of Mr. Dominy was adopted, and a copy ordered 
sent to his widow : 

The members of the New York Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission sin- 
cerely mourn the untimely death of Alonson T. Dominy and tender his bereaved 
family their heartfelt sympathy. 

His noble traits of character early attracted attention. He was entrusted with 
many important public duties in the performance of which he rendered a distinct 
public service. Always the friend of the poor and unfortunate, his charity knew 
neither race nor creed. Loved and respected by all, his death is an irreparable 
loss to the Commission and to the State. 

At the first meeting, held in Plattsburgh, August 13, 1908, organiza- 
tion was effected by the choice of Hon. H. Wallace Knapp as per- 
manent chairman, Senator Henry W. Hill as secretary, and Hon. 
Walter C. Witherbee as treasurer. 

At a subsequent meeting, after conferring with the State Comptroller, 
Mr. Witherbee was also made auditor for the Commission. 

At early meetings of the Commission, the following committees were 
constituted : 

Parades: Messrs. Riley, Booth and Colonel Cowles, U. S. A. 

Transportation: Messrs. Witherbee, Riley and Heard. 

Indian Pageant: Messrs. Lafontaine, Knapp and Myers. 

Banquet: Messrs. Frawley, Witherbee, Riley, Knapp and Burdick. 

Literary and Speakers: Messrs. Hill, Riley and Foley. 

Reception and Government Guests: Messrs. Knapp and the Commission as 

a whole. 
Naval Parades: Messrs. Weaver, Pell, Shea and Commodore Wadhams. 
State Troops: Messrs. Pell, Weaver and Adjutant-General Henry, of the 

State of New York. 
Fireworks: Messrs. Foley, Booth and Myers. 
Decorations: Messrs. Shea, Riley, Booth, Cummings. Witherbee and 

Burdick. 
Invitations: Messrs. Booth, Hill, Shea and Lafontaine. 
Commissary: Messrs. Witherbee, Loomis and Shea. 



52 State of New York 



Badges: Messrs. Hill, Hays and Smith. 

Publicity: Messrs. Hill. Frawley, Shea. Foley and Weaver. 

Entertainment: Messrs. Riley, Booth. Cummings, Higgins, Witherbee and 

Lafontaine. 
Music: Messrs. Foley, Witherbee and Lafontaine. 

Other special committees were created from time to time, as occasion 
demanded. 

The completed Commissions of the two States which took up the 
work of the celebration, were as follows: 

Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission of New York 

H. Wallace Knapp, Chairman - - - - Mooers, N. Y. 
Henry W. Hill, Secretary, 5 1 I Mutual Life ^ ' 

Building Buffalo. N. Y. 

Walter C. Witherbee, Treasurer - - - Port Henry. N. Y. 

James Shea - - - • Lake Placid, N. Y. 

John H. Booth Plattsburgh. N. Y. 

Louis C. Lafontaine Champlain, N. Y. 

James J. Frawley, 2 1 Park Row . - - - New York City. 

James A. Foley, 314 East 19th Street - - New York City. 

John B. Riley Plattsburgh. N. Y 

HoWLAND Pell, 7 Pine Street . - - - New York City. 

William R. Weaver Peru, N. Y. 

Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission of Vermont 

Governor GeorGE H. Prouty, Chairman - - Newport, Vt. 

Lynn M. Hays, Secretary Burlington, Vt, 

•Frank L. Fish, Treasurer - - - - -■ - Vergennes, Vt. 

Walter H. Crockett St. Albans, Vt. 

Horace W. Bailey Newbury. Vt. 

George T. Jarvis. Rutland. Vt. 

John M. Thomas. -- -. - Middlebury, Vt. 

William J. Van Patten Burlington. Vt. 

Arthur F. Stone : St. Johnsbury. Vt. 

F. O. Beau PRE Burlington, Vt. 




JAMES A. FOLEY 
Member of New York Commission 



JAMES SHEA 

Member of New York Commission 



VI. WORK OF THE NEW YORK COMMISSION 



53 




WILLIAM R. WEAVER 
Member of New York Commission 



VI. WORK OF THE NEW YORK COMMISSION 

THE COMMISSION took up its work promptly and prosecuted It with 
diligence. More than thirty meetings were held from August, 1 908, 
to June, 1910. Both as a matter of convenience and in order to 
familiarize themselves with local conditions, the meetings were held by the 
Commissioners at various places in the Champlain Valley; and also at 
Albany and in New York. Numerous joint meetings with the Vermont 
Commission were held, one of them on November 10, 1908, at Mont- 
pelier, and others, later, at Albany, Burlington and Plattsburgh. 

Early in its deliberations the Commission recognized that two distinct 
problems awaited its action. They were, first, to provide for a suitable 
celebration of the historic anniversaries connected with the Champlain 
region; and second, a no less important function was to bring about the 
erection of a suitable permanent memorial to Champlain. The con- 
sideration of both of these matters occupied the attention of the Com- 
mission at many of its meetings; but for the purpose of this report the 
celebration ceremonies will first be reviewed, followed by a summary of 
the action which has been taken relative to the memorial. 

The Commission early in its deliberations recognized that the proposed 
celebration presented many unusual features, which would tax their 
ingenuity to provide for. Here were two States, whose local interests 
were to be equitably considered. On both sides of the lake were numer- 
ous communities, each with local claims for consideration, and all to be 
included in any programme of exercises, whether literary or spectacular. 
Although local claims were repeatedly urged with much insistence upon 
the attention of the Commission, and although no little tact and firmness 
were called for in the adjustment of rival interests, yet it is but fair to 
say that throughout the two years of its activities, the Commission met 
the problems as they rose with a judicial disposition and carried through 

55 



56 State of New York 

its tasks to the general satisfaction of the various committees most 
concerned; while from the viewpoint of the general public the celebra- 
tion, in its conception, scope of entertainment, and high level of literary 
contribution, equalled anything of the sort ever undertaken on the Ameri- 
can continent. 

The details of the Commission's work were multifarious. At early 
sessions, consideration was had of some of the larger matters which 
demanded attention, such as effective and economical advertising, nego- 
tiations with transportation lines, the securing of attractive amusement 
features, which should at the same time be appropriate to the occasion 
and of a dignified character; and the perfection of a literary programme. 

As the work of the Commission progressed, the details multiplied, so 
that in the weeks immediately preceding the event the Commissioners 
found themselves dealing with such matters as electrical decorations, flag 
decorations in the various towns to be included in the celebration; the 
provision of grand stands, and speakers' stands; hotel accommodations 
for specially invited guests; vehicles for their local transportation and 
comfort; the employment of detectives and of secret service men on 
occasions when great crowds were expected; the hiring of bands; 
employment of official stenographers; the making of provision for Asso- 
ciated Press representatives; the granting of special privileges to photog- 
raphers; and even, in some cases, making arrangements for the placing 
of extra cots where hotel accommodations were small ; for the lighting of 
roads with gasoline torches, and the placing of water barrels alongside 
the way to relieve the thirst of the multitude. 

At the second meeting of the Commission, held at the Hotel Belmont, 
New York city, September 30, 1908, the arrangement of the literary 
exercises was placed in the hands of a committee headed by Senator 
Hill; associated with him were Judge Booth and Mr. Lafontaine. Tliey 
were authorized to arrange programmes for the exercises at the different 
places on the lake. This committee, realizing the importance of the 
duty thus laid upon it, sought to secure the co-operation, not only of 
several of America's foremost literary men, but of the highest official 




HOWLAND PELL 
Member of New York Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 57 

representatives of the nations and states concerned. This committee 
recognized the great scope presented by the history of the Champlain 
Valley and sought to include in the exercises suitable recognition of the 
several great historic events of the region. The ceremonies were to 
commemorate not merely the three hundredth anniversary of the dis- 
covery of the lake, but a remarkable chain of events following that dis- 
covery, which were of great significance in the history of three nations. 
Especially was the Revolutionary period rich in incident, including the 
military engagements in which Arnold's vessel, the Ro}^al Savage, was 
sunk near Valcour island ; and the renowned capture of Ticonderoga by 
Ethan Allen. 

Crown Point and Ticonderoga recall to the student the early strife of 
French and Indian; then comes the British supremacy on the lake; later 
still, Plattsburgh and Cumberland Bay are memorable for engagements 
in the War of 1812; and it was the purpose of this committee to recog- 
nize the significance of each of these events and to pay proper tribute to 
the gallantry alike of French and British, and of the American patriots. 

Among the specially invited guests were several to whom peculiar 
interest attached. They included Samuel Verplanck Hoffman, presi- 
dent of the New York Historical Society, who has in his possession the 
original astrolabe of Champlain. Another gentleman, whose attendance 
was asked, was the Hon. S. A. Beaman of Malone, late county judge 
of Franklin county. New York, whose grandfather piloted Ethan Allen 
into Fort Ticonderoga on the memorable day of its capture. Among 
the bidden guests were also Commodore J. W. Moore, United States 
Navy, retired; Rodney Macdonough, a descendant of Commodore 
Macdonough; Major-General and Mrs. Fred D. Grant; and the Hon. 
George Clinton of Buffalo, a grandson of DeWitt Clinton, father of the 
canal system of New York State. 

Mr. Witherbee of the Commission, associated with Mr. Myers, was 
charged with the duty of extending the official and other special invita- 
tions. They visited Washington and made the necessary arrangements 
that through the State Department invitations should be sent to the diplo- 
matic representatives of France and Great Britain and the Premier and 



58 State of New York 

Governor-General of Canada and to the Premiers and Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernors of the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The mayors of many 
American and Canadian cities were also invited. 

Prior to the celebration the New York Commission held some two 
score meetings. During the winter of 1908-9 the Commission usually 
met at Albany. Alexander R. Smith, Esq., of New York, was em- 
ployed to assist in the work of the Commission, and was of great service 
in many ways to the Commission. On May 5, 1909, a meeting was 
held at Ticonderoga, where the Commission visited the historic spots to 
select sites for pageants, grand stands, etc. The following day the 
Commission visited Plattsburgh. On May 31st, at Burlington, a joint 
meeting was held with the Vermont Commission. Numerous meetings 
were held in June at Plattsburgh and, as the celebration week ap- 
proached, at Hotel Champlain, which became for the time being head- 
quarters for the Commission. 

Of the mass of details which were considered and perfected at these 
meetings, a few only need be specifically mentioned. 

It was decided at an early date to lay especial stress upon the religious 
features of the anniversary, and Commissioner Lafontaine was appointed 
a committee of one to visit the Archbishop of Quebec and invite him to 
share in the religious celebration at Isle La Motte on July 4th. 

In the report of the celebration which follows, the exercises which were 
held at various places in the Champlain Valley on that day, are duly 
recorded. Nothing which the Commission provided as a feature of the 
celebration proved more satisfactory, alike to the Commission itself and 
to the people who shared in the services. 

The co-operation of Federal troops and of military bodies from the 
militia of Vermont, the National Guard of New York and from the 
voluntary military organizations of Canada, was early considered and 
arranged for by the Commission. Commissioners Witherbee and Pell 
visited Governor's Island and received assurances of the co-operation of 
this arm of the Government service so far as circumstances would per- 
mit. An invitation was sent to the Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders, 
a volunteer Scottish Canadian regiment at Montreal, the Commission 
furnishing their transportation. The co-operation and financial assistance 



The Champlain Tercentenary 59 



of the Federal Government were guaranteed at an early day. Commis- 
sioners Walter C. Witherbee and Henry W. Hill were delegated on 
December 5, 1908, to visit Washington and confer with Federal 
authorities in regard thereto. 

To the secretary of the Commission was delegated in general the 
supervision of all matters pertaining to publicity. Under this head and 
with the assistance of special committees, an effective advertising project 
was entered into, including the advertising of the celebration in street 
cars in New York and other cities, the printing and distribution of large 
editions of folders, attractively illustrated and containing much valuable 
historical information, the expense of which was borne in part by the 
Vermont Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission and the Delaware 
and Hudson Railroad Company. The services of a press-clipping bureau 
were enlisted and specially prepared articles were distributed setting 
forth various features of the occasion. In connection with this work 
several publications developed of no little literary value. A timely pub- 
lication of permanent value was "A Chronological History of the Cham- 
plain Valley," compiled by Mrs. George Fuller Tuttle of Plattsburgh. 
Mention should be made of Walter H. Crockett's valuable " History of 
Lake Champlain," and of " La Grande Semaine," compiled and edited 
by J. Arthur Favreau, Secretary of the Societe Historique Franco- 
Americaine; ** Champlain, a Drama in Three Acts," by J. M. Harper, 
and ** Lake George and Lake Champlain," by W. Max Reid. The 
July number of the Travel Magazine was largely devoted to the history 
of Lake Champlain and the celebration. Many of the leading news- 
papers devoted illustrated pages to the subject just prior to the celebration, 
as did also several of the magazines with popular or more distinctively 
historical or literary features. The Education Department of New York 
State recognized the occasion by issuing an attractive and useful pam- 
phlet, in which Commissioner Andrew S. Draper, LL. D., contributed 
an instructive article on the subject, as did also Charles Elliott 
Fitch, L.H.D. A few days before the celebration began a publicity 
bureau was organized for co-operation with the members and for the 
systematic dissemination of reports, the extension of courtesies to repre- 
sentatives of the press, etc. Much of the detail of this work was 



The Champlain Tercentenary 61 

Champlain valley and of the timely suggestions made and valuable assist- 
ance rendered in various w^ays to the Commission by Governor Charles 

E. Hughes, Lieutenant-Governor Horace White, Major-General Charles 

F. Roe, Brigadier-General Nelson H. Henry, Adjutant-General; 
Hon. Jacob M. Dickinson, Secretary of War; Colonel H. O. S. 
Heistand, Adjutant-General U. S. A.; the United States Senators and 
Members of Congress from New York and Vermont; Hon. Fletcher 
D. Proctor, ex-Governor of Vermont; Hon. George H. Prouty, Gov- 
ernor, and other members of the Vermont Tercentenary Commission; 
Hon. Joseph C. Sibley; Colonel Calvin D. Cowles and Colonel William 
Paulding, both U. S. A.; the Hon. Frank S. Witherbee, of Port 
Henry; Hon. Nelson W. Fisk, of Isle La Motte. Vt.; Ira H. Shoe- 
maker, Esq., industrial agent of the D. & H. R. R.; Mr. A. A. 
Heard, General Passenger Agent of the D. & H. R. R. ; Daniel 
A. Loomis, Superintendent of the Champlain Transportation Com- 
pany; Hon. John R. Myers, of Rouse's Point; Hon. Andrew S. 
Draper, Commissioner of Education; Dr. William A. E. Cummings, 
President of the Ticonderoga Historical Society; Hon. Francis Lynda 
Stetson, President, and Hon. Benjamin E. Hall, and Edmund Seymour, 
Esq., of the board of Governors of the Lake Champlain Association; 
Hon. Victor H. Paltsits, State Historian; Hon. Smith M. Weed of 
Pittsburgh, Col. Robert M. Thompson of New York, Stephen H. P. 
Pell, Esq., of New York, Hon. John F. O'Brien, Hon. Thomas F. 
Conway and many others, including various patriotic societies. 

Governor Hughes received the Commissioners on December 5, 1908, 
listened to their report of progress to that date and of their plams, and 
gave to the work his hearty endorsement. 

TTie Commission arranged with the trunk lines reaching the valley 
for round trip excursions at one and one-half fares, with suitable time 
extension on the tickets. The steamer Ticonderoga was engaged for 
five days and placed wholly at the service of the Commission. The 
greater part of the Hotel Champlain at Bluff Point was similarly secured 
by the Commission for its guests. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 63 

The crowning success, however, lay in the Hterary offerings and the 
participation of the executive heads of government. New York and 
Vermont, and Canada, were thus officially represented; and the presence 
and utterances of the diplomatic representatives of Great Britain and of 
France, and of the President of the United States and members of his 
cabinet, lent to the celebration an extraordinary dignity and significance. 
Through these high official representatives were heard, as it were, the 
voices of three great nations offering to each other sincere assurances of 
esteem and amity. The occasion of such pledges marked in the eyes 
of the world a new step in the progress of the nations towards the era of 
peace and good-will. 

The official prograunme of these exercises was as follows: 



BI-STATE PROGRAMME OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN TER- 
CENTENARY CELEBRATION EXERCISES 
Sunday, July 4, 1909 

Commemoration Exercises will occur in many of the churches in the cities, towns 

and villages in and about the Lake and elsewhere in the 

States of New York and Vermont 

Monday, July 5, 1909 — Crown Point Forts, N. Y. 

1 1 .00 A. M. Sham Battle. 
12.00 Noon. Interval for lunch. 
1.30 P. M. Salute by the United States Naval Flotilla to the Governors of 

New York and Vermont. 
2.00 P. M. Indian Pageants, under the leadership of L. O. Armstrong, by the 
Descendants of the Native Tribes occupying the Champlain 
Valley. 
3.00 p. M. Literary Exercises, including 

A Brief Address by Governor Charles E. Hughes. 

Historical Addresses by Hon. Seth Low of New York, and 

Judge Albert C. Barnes of Chicago. 
An Original Poem, entitled, '* Song for the Tercentenary of 
Lake Champlain." by Clinton Scollard of Clinton. N. Y. 



64 State of New York 









BI-STATE PROGRAMME 


— Continued 


4.30 


p. 


M. 


Evening parade. 




5.00 


p. 


M. 


Governor and Commissions depart 


for Ticonderoga. 


6.00 


p. 


M. 


Interval for Supper. 




7.45 


p. 


M. 


Indian Pageants. 




9.00 


p. 


M. 


Fireworks. 





Tuesday. July 6, 1 909 — Ticonderoga, N. Y. 

7.30 A. M. Departure of Special Guest Train from Albany over the D. & H. 
R. R. for Ticonderoga and Plattsburgh. 

10.00 A. M. Review of 10th Regiment, N. G. N. Y., by Governors Hughes 
and Prouty. 

II .00 A. M. Sham Battle along Old French Lines. 

I 2.00 Noon. Lunch to Guests on Steamer Ticonderoga. 

1 .00 P. M. Literary Exercises at Grand Stand, including brief addresses by 
Vice-President James S. Sherman, Governor Charles E. 
Hughes of New York, and Governor George H. Prouty of 
Vermont. 

An Historical Address, entitled, " The Story of Lake Cham- 
plain," by Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie of New York. 

An Original Ballad, entitled, " Ticonderoga," by Percy Mac- 
Kaye of Cornish, New Hampshire. 

2.30 P. M. Salute to the President of the United States, by the United States 
Naval Flotilla, and Addresses by President Taft and other 
distinguished guests. 

3.45 P. M. Departure of Presidential Party, Governors Hughes and Prouty, 
Commissions and invited guests. 



4.00 


p. 


M. 


Indian Pageants. 


6.00 


p. 


M. 


Interval for Supper. 


7.45 


p. 


M. 


Indian Pageants. 


8.45 


p. 


M. 


Fireworks. 




LOUIS C. LAFONTAINE 

Member of New York Commission 



9.45 


A. 


M. 


10.30 


A. 


M. 


10.30 


A. 


M. 


12.30 


P. 


M. 


1.30 


P. 


M. 


2.00 


P. 


M. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 65 



BI-STATE PROGRAMME — Con/mueJ 
Wednesday, July 7, 1909 — Plattsburgh, N. Y. 

Address by the President at Cliff Haven. 

Indian Pageants at Mouth of Saranac River. Plattsburgh. 

Private Reception by the President to the Representatives of 
Foreign Governments and Members of the Nev^ York Legis- 
lature at Hotel Champlain. 

Luncheon. 

Special Train, Hotel Champlain for Plattsburgh Barracks. 

Parade and Review^ of Military, Civic and Fraternal Organizations 
at Plattsburgh Barracks. 

3.00 P. \L Literary Exercises at Plattsburgh Barracks, including brief 
addresses by 

President William Howard Taft. 

The Hon. J. J. Jusserand, the French Ambassador. 

Rt. Hon. James Bryce, the British Ambassador. 

Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General of Canada. 

Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, Governors Hughes and Prouty. 

A Formal Historical Address, entitled " The Iroquois and the 
Struggle for America," by the Hon. Elihu Root, U. S. 
Senator from New York. 

An Original Poem, entitled, " Champlain and Lake Cham- 
plain," by Daniel L. Cady of New York. 

Evening Parade at Plattsburgh Barracks. 

Indian Pageants at Mouth of Saranac River, Plattsburgh. 

Banquet to the President at Hotel Champlain, with post-prandial 
speeches by the President. Vice-President, and distinguished 
guests. 

9.00 P. M. Fireworks at Mouth of Saranac River, Plattsburgh. 



5.00 


p. M. 


7.45 


P. M. 


8.00 


p. M. 



66 State of New York 



BI-STATE PROGRAMME — Continued 
Thursday, July 8. 1909 — Burlington, Vt. 

9.00 A. M. Presidential Party, Ambassadors, State Commissions and Invited 
Guests leave Hotel Champlain by Steamer for Burlington 
where they arrive at 10.00 A. M., and are escorted from King 
Street Wharf to City Hall Park by Vermont Division of 
National Guard, Col. J. Gray Estey commanding. 
10.30 A. M. Literary Exercises in City Hall Park, Gov. G. H. Prouty 
presiding. 
Prayer, Rt. Rev. Arthur C. A. Hall, D. D., Protestant Epis- 
copal Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont. 
Welcome to Vermont, Gov. George H. Prouty. 
Welcome to Burlington, the Hon. James E. Burke, Mayor. 
Remarks, Gov. Charles E. Hughes of New York. 
Address, Rt. Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador. 
Remarks, M. Jusserand, French Ambassador. 
Remarks, the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General of 

Canada. 
An Original Poem, by Bliss Carman. 

Remarks, the Hon. William H. Taft, President of the United 
States. 
12.00 Noon. Review of Parade by Presidential Party, Foreign Guests, and 
Governors Hughes and Prouty. 
1.00 P. M. Luncheon to Presidential Party and Ambassadorial and Official 
Guests at the Ethan Allen Club by His Excellency Gov. 
Prouty of Vermont. 
1. 00 P. M. Luncheon to New York State Legislature at the Gymnasium 

Building, University of Vermont. 
2.30 P. M. Indian Pageants, including the Indian Drama, " Hiawatha," at 

water front. 
4.00 P. M. Departure of New York Legislative Guests for Plattsburgh. 
5.00 to 6.00 p. M. Inspection of the City by the Presidential Party and 

Foreign Guests. 
6.30 P. M. Banquet at University Gymnasium, with full post-prandial features, 

Including a speech by President Taft. 
8.30 P. M. Indian Pageants, including the Indian Drama, " Hiawatha," at 
water front. 




HON. HORACE WHITE 

Lieutenant-Governor of New York during the celebration 



The Champlain Tercentenary 67 



BI-STATE PROGRAMME — Continued 

Friday, July 9, 1909 — Isle La Motte, Vt. 

8.00 A. M. Presidential, Ambassadorial and Official Parties leave Burlington 
via Steamer Ticonderoga, joined by New York State 
Commission and Guests at Plattsburgh en route for Isle La 
Motte. 

9.00 a. M. Departure of Special New York Legislative Guest Train from 
Hotel Champlain for Albany, N. Y. 

10.30 A. M. Solemn High Mass Sung by Right Reverend Thomas M. A. 
Burke, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, 

N.Y. 

I 1 .45 A. M. Literary Exercises, Gov. George H. Prouty presiding. 

Prayer, Rev. John M. Thomas, D. D., President of Middle- 
bury College. 

Welcome to Vermont, Governor George H. Prouty. 

Welcome to Isle La Motte, by Senator Henry W. Hill of 
Buffalo. 

Remarks, Gov. Charles E. Hughes of New York. 

An Original Poem, by Prof. John Erskine of Columbia Uni- 
versity. 

Address by Hon. Wendell P. Stafford, Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the District of Columbia. 

Chorus, St. Albans Choral Union. 

Benediction, Rev. John M. Thomas, D. D. 

L30 P. M. Interval for Luncheon. 

2.30 P. M. Dedication of Boulder in Memory of Col. Seth Warner and Capl. 
Remember Baker by the Patriotic Women of Vermont. 

3.30 P. M. Indian Pageants. 

4.30 P. M. Departure of Presidential Party and Distinguished Guests for 
Plattsburgh, N. Y., and Burlington, Vt. 



68 State of New York 



BI-STATE PROGRAMME — Confinue^/ 
Friday, July 9, 1909 — Rouses Point. N. Y. 

7.45 p. M. Indian Pageants. 
9.00 P. M. Fireworks. 

Saturday. July 10. 1909 

10.00 A. M. Water Carnival, consisting of motor-boat and canoe races and 
other aquatic sports, at Rouse's Point, N. Y, 

I 0,00 A. M. Unveiling of a Tablet to the Memory of the Soldiers of the War 
of 1 81 2, on the main building of the University of Vermont, 
which was used as barracks for the troops in the second war 
against Great Britain, at Burlington, Vt, 

The Vice-President of the United States and Speaker Joseph G. 
Cannon of the House of Representatives were unfortunately not able to 
share in the exercises, which otherwise were carried out substantially as 
above indicated. 

A copy of the official invitation to the general exercises of the 
Tercentenary celebration will be found elsewhere herein. 




HON. GEORGE R. MALBY. M. C. 



Part Two 

THE CELEBRATION 




HON. DAVID J. FOSTER. M. C. 




Copyriglitid nnd by courtesy of J. N. Bullock, 1»0» 

HON. FRANK PLUMLEY. M. C. 



I. GENERAL FEATURES: MILITARY AND NAVAL. 
AND THE INDIAN PAGEANTS 



71 




LYNN M. HAYS 
Secretary of Vermont Commission 



I. GENERAL FEATURES: MILITARY AND NAVAL. 
AND THE INDIAN PAGEANTS 

THE CELEBRATION PROGRAMME as arranged, presented several 
unusual features. In order to bring as many of the lakeside com- 
munities as possible into participation, it was necessary to provide a 
peripatetic entertainment — in President Taft's much-quoted phrase, ** a 
traveling show," which after offering its programme at one place, could 
move on and entertain again at another town, but always with new 
features and with a different audience. These conditions presented prob- 
lems to the commissioners far more perplexing than would have been the 
planning of a celebration at one place; but the very elements which at first 
were thought to be obstacles, were utilized as aids and accessories ; and, 
with the blue lake itself as stage and the Adirondack and the Green 
Mountains as scenery, the celebration was carried through without fault 
or failure, each day's programme gaining by experience of what had gone 
before, until on the last day — as perfect with soft airs, sunshine and 
cerulean vault over all, as was ever granted for the enjoyment of human- 
kind — this great, moving, open-air drama reached its climax on the 
historic and hospitable shores of Isle La Motte. 

There were in effect six acts to the drama: The exercises at Crown 
Point, at Ticonderoga, at Bluff Point and Plattsburgh, on the New York 
side; and at Burlington and Isle La Motte, in Vermont. Everywhere 
throughout the valley and during the whole week, cities and villages were 
en fete. There was good-natured rivalry in the arrangement of local 
programmes of sports and contests, and in decorating the streets and 
buildings. Especially to be noted was the combined use everywhere of 
the American flag and the flags of France — not merely the tricolor 
emblem of the great French republic, but historic banners of many colors 
and devices. Very popular and effective in these decorations were the 
old French flag of blue with the white cross of St. Louis; and the royal 

73 



74 State of New York 

emblem of blue, or sometimes of cream color, emblazoned with golden 
fleur-de-lis, the flag of Henry IV. of France, which Champlain, as a 
personal representative of the king, was entitled to carry. 

The occasion took on a dual significance in that it celebrated not only 
the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the lake, but the 1 33d anniver- 
sary of the independence of the United States. 

At Ticonderoga, at Crown Point, and elsewhere, allusions were some- 
times made, in the course of the exercises, to certain events in the valley 
regarding which the historians are not in agreement. One of these much- 
disputed points relates to the date of Champlain's entrance into the lake. 
Another regards the place of his battle with the Iroquois. Certain 
authorities conclude that it occurred in Bulwagga Bay. This view, it 
is understood, is held by many residents of Port Henry, Crown Point 
and vicinity. Others, among them numerous residents of Ticonderoga, 
side with such authorities as find the scene of the conflict to have been 
at or near the outlet of Ticonderoga creek. Still another much-discussed 
question is in regard to the burial place of Lord George Augustus Howe, 
whose remains are claimed by some to have been found during excava- 
tions a few years ago, in Ticonderoga village ; whereas others find satisfac- 
tory proofs that his body was carried to Albany and buried there, under 
the chancel of St. Peter's church. These and perhaps other points still 
in dispute offer a profitable field of further inquiry for the student of 
Champlain history. 

Two features of the programme that everywhere interested and 
delighted the public were: First, the military and naval representation; 
and, second, the Indians in their realistic history dramas. As these phases 
of the general programme were repeated at several places on the succes- 
sive days, a general account of each will here suffice. The comprehensive 
report of the Military and Naval Committee, covering this featuie of the 
programme for the entire week, is as follows : 




FRANK L. FISH 
Member of Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 75 



REPORT OF THE MILITARY AND NAVAL COMMITTEE. 

The military and naval features of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commis- 
sion were of great interest to those who witnessed them and added much to the 
success of the celebration. 

The Army 

The Hon. Jacob M. Dickinson. Secretary of War, gave instructions, early in 
the spring, to have the Army participate in the celebration, and he arrived at Fort 
Ticonderoga July 6th, on the presidential train from Washington and was present 
at all the subsequent ceremonies. 

The details of the movements of the United States troops were arranged by 
Colonel H. O. S. Heistand, Adjutant-General, by order of Major-General Leonard 
Wood, commanding the Department of the East. 

A squadron of the Fifteenth United States Cavalry, under command of 
Captain W. T. Littebrant, proceeded from Fort Ethan Allen in the end of June 
on a practice march. Reaching Larrabee's Point June 25th, the lake was crossed 
the next day to Ticonderoga where a camp was established until June 28th. The 
squadron proceeded along the west shore of the lake, by easy marches, to Platts- 
burgh Barracks, where it arrived July 3d. The squadron received the presidential 
train at Bluff Point, Tuesday evening, July 6th, and escorted the President to the 
Hotel Champlain. On July 7th the squadron again acted as escort to the President 
from the Hon. Smith M. Weed's house to Plattsburgh Barracks and later took 
part in the parade and review. Resuming the practice march on July 7th, the 
squadron crossed the lake at Chazy Landing, and camped for two nights at Isle 
La Motte, near the site of old Fort Ste. Anne, and acted as escort to Governors 
Hughes and Prouty at the celebration held there Friday, July 9th. The squadron 
returned to Fort Ethan Allen by the road over the islands. 

The Fifth United States Infantry, Colonel Calvin D. Cowles, was stationed 
at Plattsburgh Barracks and participated in all events of the celebration there, and 
also in the parade at Burlington, Vt., on July 8th. Colonel Cowles was in com- 
mand of all the United States troops and Grand Marshal of the parade in Platts- 
burgh, July 7lh. He did all in his power to assist the commission in the erection of 
the grand stand and details of the parade, and deserves their sincere thanks. 

The Twenty-fourth United States Infantry. Colonel William Paulding, a 
colored regiment, came by rail from Madison Barracks July 3d, and took part in 
the parade and review July 7th, returning July 8th. The infantry regiments were 



76 State of New York 



accompanied by their machine gun platoons and mule pack trains, which presented 
a most business-hke appearance. 

The Navy 

The United States Navy was represented by a flotilla consisting of the torpedo 
boat Manley and two steam cutters, the Platisburgh and the Burlington, under 
command of Lieutenant George W. Steele, Jr., U. S. N., with Midshipman 
Gerard Bradford, U. S. N., and sixteen sailors. The department was unable 
to send any larger boats on account of the limited depth of water in the Cham- 
plain canal, but the little flotilla was of great interest to the people along the 
canal and shores of Lake Champlain, as it was the first time the Navy had been 
represented in those regions since the period of the War of 1 81 2, when its 
achievements won the praise and gratitude of the Nation. Lieutenant Steele had 
his flotilla present for the celebrations at Crown Point, N. Y., Fort Ticonderoga, 
N. Y, Plattsburgh, N. Y. Burlington, Vt., Isle La Motte, Vt., and Rouse's 
Point, N. Y. Salutes were fired in honor of President Taft and Governor 
Hughes, and the A/an/ep escorted the steamboat Ticonderoga and steam yacht 
Valcour while the President was on board. A guard of honor of blue jackets, 
under command of Midshipman Gerard Bradford, U. S. N., was landed and 
posted before the speakers' stand at Fort Amherst, Fort Ticonderoga, and before 
the reviewing stand at Plattsburgh Barracks. The guard excited much favorable 
comment from its excellent appearance and from the fact that United States sailors 
were an unusual sight in those places. The thanks of the commissioners are due 
to Lieutenant Steele for the duty he performed in connection with the New York 
Commission. 

The National Guard 

The arrangements for the participation of the State troops in the celebration were 
made by Major-General Charles F. Roe, Brigadier-General Nelson H. Henry, 
Adjutant-General, and Brigadier-General James H. Lloyd, commanding the 
Third Brigade, and the thanks of the commission are due these officers. 
General Lloyd inspected sites for camps early in the season and orders were issued 
for the regiments of that brigade to encamp at Crown Point and Plattsburgh 
Barracks for field service. The commander-in-chief. Governor Hughes, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Hughes and Colonel George C. Treadwell, Military Secretary, 
arrived at Bluff Point on the evening of Sunday, July 4th, and was received by 
the members of the commission, and his Aides, Captain Louis W. Stotesbury, 
Seventh Regiment, A. D. C, and Captain William R. Feam, Seventy-first 
Regiment, A. D. C. General Roe arrived at the Hotel Champlain July 3d, and 




PRESIDENT JOHN M. THOMAS 

Member of Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 11 



General Henry joined the presidential train at Albany as escort to President Taft, 
who was accompanied by Captain A. W. Butt, U. S. A., Major Oliver B. 
Bridgman, Squadron "A," A. D. C, escort to the British Ambassador; and 
Commander Robert P. Forshew, Second Battalion, Naval Militia, A, D. C, 
escort to the French Ambassador, were on their special cars attached to the presi- 
dential train, which arrived at Addison Junction July 6lh at 2.30 P. M. First 
Lieutenant Frederick M. Crossett, Eighth Artillery District, A. D. C, escort to 
the representatives of Canada, arrived with his party in special cars from Montreal 
at Bluff Point on Tuesday evening, July 6th. General Lloyd was in camp with 
his troops. 

TTie Tenth Regiment, N. G. N. Y., Colonel John L Pruyn, went into camp 
at Crown Point near old Forts Frederic and Amherst on Sunday, June 27th. 
On Monday, July 5th, when the steam yacht Valcour, loaned to the com- 
mission by Hon. Joseph C. Sibley, arrived at the wharf at Crown Point, with the 
New York State official party, the Governor was received by a guard of honor 
from the regiment and escorted to the platform to witness the Indian pageant and 
from there to the speaker's stand inside Fort Amherst. After the literary exer- 
cises the Governor reviewed the regiment on the adjoining parade ground. Early 
Tuesday morning, July 6th, the regiment was transported on the steamer Ticon- 
deroga to Fort Ticonderoga, and marching along the old military road, bivouacked 
near the railroad station. At 11 A. M. the regiment was reviewed on the north 
field by Governor Hughes and Vice-Admiral Stakichi Uriu, Imperial Japanese 
Navy. After the review the regiment was deployed in extended order before the 
French lines and fought a realistic sham battle through the woods to the old 
earthworks. When the presidential train arrived at Addison Junction, at 
2.30 P. M., President Taft was received by a company detailed as Guard of 
Honor, and then reviewed the regiment in line on the school lot. At 3.30 P. M. 
two battalions entrained for their home stations, leaving one battalion for guard 
duty. There were over 1 0,000 people on the garrison grounds and they witnessed 
the mancjeuvres of the regiment with great interest. Colonel Pruyn, the officers and 
men deserve great credit for the excellent appearance they made in spite of the 
rainy weather and muddy ground. The battalion detailed for guard duty per- 
formed their task in a most business-like and prompt manner, and remained until the 
departure of the official party on the steamer Ticonderoga at 4.30 P. M. 

The Second Regiment, N. G. N. Y., Colonel James W. Lester, went into 
camp at Plattsburgh Barracks, Saturday, July 3d, and remained there for eight 
days; the regiment participated in the parade and review July 7th and created 
much favorable comment for its fine appearance and full ranks. This camp was 



78 State of New York 



beautifully located near the shores of the lake, and was of great interest to the 
many thousand visitors to Plattsburgh during the celebration. The First Regiment, 
N. G. N. Y., Colonel Charles H. Hitchcock, relieved the Second Regiment on 
July I 0th and also spent eight days in field practice. Although the celebration was 
over there were many visitors, and the people of Plattsburgh were pleased to have 
two such fine regiments of the State Guard encamped near their city. 

The Canadian Troops 

Two regiments of Canadian troops, the Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders, 
Lieutenant-Colonel George S. Cantlie, and the Governor-General's Foot Guards, 
Lieutenant-Colonel D. R. Street, arrived in Plattsburgh Wednesday morning, 
July 7th, and were a most interesting feature of the parade and review. The 
brilliant red uniforms of the Guards with their high bearskin shakos and the pic- 
turesque Scotch Highlanders, with their pipers, made a striking contrast with the 
olive drab of the National Guard and dark and light blue of the United States 
infantry and cavalry. The Highlanders returned to Montreal by special train 
at n P. M. the day of the parade. The Guards spent the night at Plattsburgh 
Barracks and were transported with the Fifth United States Infantry early in the 
morning of July 8th on the steamer Ticonderoga to Burlington, Vt., where 
they participated in the parade in that city, returning to Ottawa by special train 
late that night. 

The Review at Plattsburgh Barracks 

The review and evening parade held on the parade ground of Plattsburgh 
Barracks, on Lake Champlain, with the Green Mountains in the distance, was one 
of the finest military displays ever seen in this country. Although there were only 
about 3,500 men present, the different masses of the troops in their varied uniforms 
presented a most striking appearance. It was stated that this was the first occasion 
in the history of the country that a President of the United States had reviewed 
two Canadian regiments with regular and State troops. The military manoeuvres 
were carried out in such a perfect manner as to call for enthusiastic applause from 
the 20,000 spectators. The grand stand, with the guard of blue jackets on the 
west side of the parade ground, held 2,500 guests of the commission, and also 
presented a picturesque scene. The President of the United States, the Secretary 
of War, Governor Hughes and his staff. Governor Prouty and his staff; the 
British Ambassador, the French Ambassador with his naval attache. Lieutenant 
Benoist d'Azy, and the military attache. Captain de Chambrun, in the full uni- 
forms of their respective services; the Canadian representatives with their military 
aides in the uniforms of the British Army; Vice- Admiral Uriu in the uniform of 




HORACE W. BAILEY 
Member of Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 79 

the Japanese Navy; the New York senators and assemblymen, the joint tercen- 
tenary commissioners of New York and Vermont, and many ladies in bright sum- 
mer costumes, were on the stand. The official order of the parade in Plattsburgh 
and the official orders from the Department of the East and from the Adjulant- 
Generals office at Albany are herewith attached. 

Respectfully submitted, 

HowLAND Pell, 

Chairman. 
[The orders of parade, etc., are here omitted.] 

List of Officers Present at the Lake Champlain Tercentenary) Celebration, 
July 4 to 10, 1909 
Fifth United States Infantry 

1. Colonel C. D. Cowles. 

2. Major B. H. Dutcher, Medical Department. 

3. Major W. F. Martin. 

4. Captain E. Wittenmyer. 

5. Captain H. O. Williams. 

6. Captain E. T. Hartmann. 

7. Captain R. Field. 

8. Captain A. F. Prescott. 

9. Captain H. C. Price. 
10. Captain J. K. Partello. 

I I . Chaplain H. A. Chouinard. 

12. First Lieutenant A. E. Deitsch. 

13. First Lieutenant S. H. Hopson. 

14. First Lieutenant A. L. Singleton. 

15. First Lieutenant W. D. Wills. 

16. First Lieutenant J. E. McDonald. 

17. First Lieutenant N. J. Wiley. 

18. First Lieutenant D. Whiting. 

19. Second Lieutenant W. Goodwin. 

20. Second Lieutenant K. Truesdell. 

21. Second Lieutenant T. L. Crystal. 

22. Second Lieutenant A. C. Tipton. 



80 State of New York 



Fifth United States Infantry — Continued 

23. Second Lieutenant A. Rutherford. 

24. Second Lieutenant C. H. White. 

25. Second Lieutenant P. Lamed. 

26. Second Lieutenant J. F. Curry. 

together with four hundred and ninety (490) enHsted men of the Fifth Infantry, 
and Hospital Corps stationed at Plattsburgh Barracks, N. Y., took part in both 
parades. 

All above named officers took part in parades at Plattsburgh, N. Y,, and Bur- 
lington, Vermont, except Captain Hartmann, who did not take part in the parade 
at Burlington, Vermont. 

The band. Fifth Infantry, also took part in both parades. 

List of Officers Present at the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Celebration, 
JuhA to 10. 1909 
Twenty-Fourth United States Infantry 

1. Colonel William Paulding. 

2. First Lieutenant Eben C. Hill, M. R. Corps. 

3. Major Samson L. Faison. 

4. Major Carl Reichman. 

5. Chaplain W. W. E. Gladden. 

6. Captain and Commissary Hunter B. Nelson. 

7. Second Lieutenant Frank Moorman, B. Q. M. & C. 

8. Second Lieutenant John C. French, B. Q. M. & C. 

9. Captain William B. Cochran. 
10. Captain Robert J. Maxey. 

1 1 . Captain Charles E. Hay, Jr. 

1 2. First Lieutenant Robert S. Knox. 

13. First Lieutenant Charles J. Nelson. 

14. First Lieutenant Franklin T. Burt. 

15. First Lieutenant Bowers Davis. 

1 6. Second Lieutenant Torrey B. Maghee. 

17. Second Lieutenant Arthur E. Burton. 

18. Captain John B. Sanford, Twenty-fifth Infantry, 
and three hundred and fifty-seven (357) enlisted men. 




WALTER H. CROCKETT 

Member of Vermont Commission 




GEORGE T. JARVIS 
Member of Vermont Commission 



The Cham plain Tercentenary 81 



Fifteenth United States Cavalry 

1. Captain William T. Littebrant. 

2. First Squadron Adjutant Emory Pike. 

3. First Lieutenant Philip Mowry. 

4. Second Lieutenant Clark P. Chandler. 

5. Second Lieutenant Leland Wadsworth, Jr. 
and one hundred and one (101) enlisted men. 

The above-named men took part in the parade at Plattsburgh Barracks. N. Y., 
July 7, 1909. only. 

The band. Twenty- fourth United States Infantry, also took part in the parade 
at Plattsburgh. N. Y.. on July 7. 1909. 

List of Officers of Headquarters Third Brigade, National Cuard, New 
York, Present at the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Celebration, 
JuhAto 10. 1909 

Brigadier-General J. H. Lloyd. National Guard. New York. 

Major F. A. McNeely. Adjutant-General. 

Major J. P. Treanor, Inspector-General. 

Major J. H. Manning. Commissary. 

Major H. W. Bendell. Surgeon. 

Major A. W. La Rose. Quartermaster. 

Major C. H. Gaus. Ordnance Officer. 

Major Lansdale Green. Engineer. 

Captain S. H. Cluett. Assistant to Quartermaster. 

First Lieutenant Griswold Green. Aide. 

First Lieutenant H. A. Todd. Aide. 

List of Officers Present at the Lake Champlain Tercentenar]^ Celebration, 
July 4 to 10. 1909 
Second Regiment, National Guard. N. Y. 

\. Colonel James W. Lester. 

2. Lieutenant-Colonel Loyal L. Davis. 

3. Major James M. Andrews. 

4. Major Thomas W. Hislip. 

5. Major Selden W. Mott. 

6. Captain Thomas G. Dickson. 



82 State of New York 



Second Regiment, National Guard, N. Y. — Continued 

7. First Lieutenant Frank J. Yendley. 

8. First Lieutenant Daniel F. Yial. 

9. First Lieutenant John H. Barker. 
10. Captain George M. Alden. 

1 I . Second Lieutenant William E. Walker. 

12. Second Lieutenant Frank D. Morehouse. 

1 3. Second Lieutenant William A. Taylor. 

14. Captain George W. Sturtevant. 

15. Captain Asa B. Peake. 

1 6. Captain John McGoffin. 

I 7. Captain William Leland Thompson. 

1 8. Captain F. De Forrest Kemp. 

19. Captain George Hughes. 

20. Captain Albert Wells. 

21. Captain Clarence E. Holden. 

22. Captain Ransom H. Gillett. 

23. Captain Thomas Carney. 

24. Captain Louis E. Potter. 

25. Captain Daniel J. Hogan. 

26. First Lieutenant John McQuade. 

27. First Lieutenant Andrew T. McLean. 

28. First Lieutenant Frank M. Hay. 

29. First Lieutenant John Givney. 

30. First Lieutenant Everett Pateman. 

31. First Lieutenant Le Roy Geesler. 

32. First Lieutenant Clarence C. Turn. 

33. First Lieutenant J. Scott Button. 

34. First Lieutenant William P. Dauchy. 

35. First Lieutenant Roscoe Hayes. 

36. First Lieutenant George W. Robinson. 

37. First Lieutenant Robert S. Hall. 

38. Second Lieutenant George Hartwell. 

39. Second Lieutenant Thomas J. Connery. 

40. Second Lieutenant Porter S. Oakly. 

41. Second Lieutenant George T. Roddy. 

42. Second Lieutenant Charles F. Reynolds. 

43. Second Lieutenant John Livingston. 




WILLIAM J. VAN PATTEN 
Member of Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 83 



Second Regiment, National Guard, N. Y. — Continued 

44. Second Lieutenant Manle H. Stuny. 

45. Second Lieutenant Albert Brown. 

46. Second Lieutenant Henry V. Putnam. 

47. Second Lieutenant William H. Curtis. 

48. Second Lieutenant Clarence C. Collins, 
and eight hundred and seventy-five (875) enlisted men. 

The above-named men took part in the parade at Plattsburgh Barracks, N. Y., 
July 7. 1909. 

The band. Second Regiment National Guard, New^ York, also took part in 
the parade at Plattsburgh Barracks, N. Y., on July 7, 1 909. 

Tenth Infantry, National Guard, N. Y. 

Colonel John I. Pruyn. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles E. Davis. 
Major Charles B. Staats. 
Major John F. Klein. 
Major Albert Saulpaugh, Jr. 
Captain Frank S. Harris. 
Captain William B. Coates. 
Captain Edward V. Howard. 
Captain Charles E. Walsh. 
Captain Arthur W. Nugent. 
Captain John F. Fairchild. 
Captain Edward Oliver. 
Captain Allan L. Reagan. 
Captain Ralph M. Glover. 
Captain George F. Chanler. 
Captain Thomas J. Dooley. 
Captain William L. Burnett. 
Captain Percy W. Decker. 
First Lieutenant Christopher Gresham. 
First Lieutenant Charles H, Canfield. 
First Lieutenant Wilbur B. Hammond. 
First Lieutenant William F. Wheelock. 
First Lieutenant Albert E. Denison. 
First Lieutenant Willard H. Donner. 
First Lieutenant Albert C. Bogert. 



84 State of New York 



Tenth Infantry, National Guard, N. Y. — Continued 

First Lieutenant Gilbert V. Schenck. 
First Lieutenant Hiram D. Rogers, Jr. 
First Lieutenant Asahel G. Harvey. 
First Lieutenant Frank J. Meagher. 
First Lieutenant Edward R. Thorne. 
Second Lieutenant Charles A. Baker. 
Second Lieutenant Richard C. McCoy. 
Second Lieutenant Daniel J. Cassidy. 
Second Lieutenant Michael J. Reagan. 
Second Lieutenant Albert S. Callan. 
Second Lieutenant William McVicar. 
Second Lieutenant Henry C. Perley. 
Second Lieutenant Jacob S. Kingsbury. 
Second Lieutenant William Buchhelm. 
Second Lieutenant Herbert C. Alden. 
Second Lieutenant Frederick W. Cobb. 
Second Lieutenant Robert G. Robinson. 
Chaplain Albert F. Tenney. 

Non-commissioned staff, band, detachment of hospital corps, and I 2 companies, 
with an enlisted strength of 7 1 9 men. 

The band of the 1 0th Infantry, N. G., N. Y., also participated in the exercises 
at Plattsburgh, N. Y., and Burlington. Vt. 

Names of Commanding Officers of the Covernor-CeneraV s Foot Guards 
and the Fifth Ro^al Canadian Highlanders, and Number of 
Enlisted Men who took P^^^l- i" '^^ Tercentenary Celebration, 
July^Ato 10. 1909 

Governor-General's Foot Guards 

Lieutenant-Colonel D. R. Street, commanding. Twenty-two (22) 
officers and three hundred and eleven (311) enlisted men. 

Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders 

Colonel George S. Cantlie, commanding. Twenty-eight (28) officers 
and four hundred and thirty-eight (438) men. 




F. O. BEAUPRE 
Member of Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 85 



The Governor-Generars Foot Guards and band took part in both parades at 
Plattsburgh Barracks, N. Y., and Burlington. Vt., July 7 and 8, 1909. 

The Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders and band took part in the parade at 
Plattsburgh Barracks, July 7. 1909. 

THE NAVAL EXHIBIT 

Of well nigh as great interest in a popular sense was the United States 
naval exhibit. Although necessarily small and restricted to boats which 
could enter the lake by canal from the south, it had this peculiar feature, 
that it was the first naval exhibition on the waters of Champlain since the 
battles of the War of 1812. After considerable negotiating, the Federal 
Government specified for the occasion the torpedo boat Manle^ and two 
steam cutters, which, in honor of the occasion, were named, respectively, 
the Plattsburgh and the Burlington, each mounting a one-pounder 
gun and carrying 180 rounds of ammunition. This flotilla left the 
Brooklyn Navy Yard June 19th in command of Lieut. G. W. Steele, 
with Midshipman Gerard Bradford second in command, reaching the 
lake by way of the Hudson and the Champlain canal. 

It had been hoped to secure the revenue cutter Sandoval, but it was 
found that she could not pass through the canal on account of her length 
and draught. 

A project which it was hoped could be carried out in connection with 
the celebration was the raising of the Ro^al Savage, Benedict Arnold's 
flagship which went aground and was abandoned in the engagement 
fought on Lake Champlain, off the southwest point of Valcour Island, 
October 11,1 776. For one and a third centuries the hull of this vessel 
has lain in shallow water and has many times been examined by lake 
men of the vicinity. She was a little craft according to modern standards, 
only 45 feet long and 1 5 feet beam. Application was made to the Navy 
Department for permission to raise her for exhibition in connection with 
the Champlain celebration. Permission was readily gained. Messrs. 
Witherbee, Riley and Booth were charged with the arrangements for 
raising the Royal Savage, and also for the suitable use of the remains of 
the vesse/ Congress, preserved at Chimney Point, Vt. On further exami- 



86 State of New York 

nation of the Ro^al Savage, however, divers found that the hull was 
deeply imbedded in the sand and although apparently in a good state of 
preservation the work presented such difficulties that the project was 
abandoned. 

One feature of the celebration early determined upon was a series of 
historical entertainments to be given by a band of Indians. Such a com- 
pany, of wide fame, which had shared in the pageants and entertainments 
at the Quebec Tercentenary was secured, under the management of Mr. 
L. O. Armstrong. It was arranged that they should present three separate 
spectacles, enacted with the necessary scenic and natural settings of lake 
and shore. The subjects determined upon were : Champlain discovering 
the lake which bears his name; Champlain's battle with the Iroquois; and, 
third, the great historic drama of " Hiawatha." These historic plays 
were to be given at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh, Burlington, 
and Isle La Motte, two performances at each place on five successive days 
of the celebration week. The following narrative of this most spectacular 
feature of the celebration is submitted: 

THE INDIAN PAGEANTS AT LAKE CHAMPLAIN 

During the memorable week of the commemoration of the tercentenary there 
floated on the placid waters of the beautiful lake, an island, the inhabitants of which 
were 1 68 Iroquois, the descendants of those who fought against Champlain in July, 
1 609. So realistic was the island in its construction that when anchored near the 
land at 100 feet distance, it was only after keen examination that one detected the 
artificial. The island represented the ancient settlement and sacred island of 
Tiotiake, now Montreal Island. The Iroquois call it Tiotiake to this day. 

The idea of presenting the pageant in the form of a floating exhibition, to the 
different cities of Lake Champlain was at first thought very difficult or impossible 
but it was carried out very efl^ectually, as one writer put it, " by the combined 
imagination and unceasing practical energy of Mr. L. O. Armstrong," with the 
ever present help and support of the Commissions of the States of Vermont and 
New York, 

The setting of the play and the construction of the float is well worth a brief 
description. Six hulls, afterwards to be used as house boats, were lashed together 
as three separate catamarans; the beams joining the catamarans were 10 inches 




ARTHUR F. STONE 
Member of Vermont Commission 



The Champlain Tercentenary 87 



square. These were hinged together with cables making three catamarans in length. 
The whole was decked over forming a stage 300 feet by 70 odd feet. A sloping 
hinged addition along one side formed a realistic sandy beach upon which bark 
was laid flat to prevent the foot sinking in the sand — at least that was the idea 
that was very well conveyed. This beach could be raised at will when the floating 
island was traveling so that the sea would not break it off. In the centre of the 
stage was a stockade of 1 5-foot poles lashed in the Indian style. At each end 
amongst fine cedar and birch trees which by some remarkable means were kept 
growing green and fresh to the end of the journey around the lake, were Iroquois 
long houses five or six in number and a larger number of birch wigwams. With 
the island went the Don de Dieu, Champlain's flagship, some American gunboats 
and the firework boats, all under the command of Commodore Armstrong. 

The play opened with a trade meeting, an annual affair between the Hochelagas 
and Algonquins, Hurons and their allies. A fire was solemnly lighted and the 
peace-pipe smoked. The Indians were in splendid costumes; those who were not 
naked to the waist (with breech cloths) wore skin suits. It was the richest array 
of eagle feathers that the writer had ever seen. At this meeting the great peace 
chief of the Hochelagas speaks eloquently of the good feeling existing among the 
Indians and which had existed for so long. A race is run by the champion Black 
Wolverine of the Algonquins and Hiawatha, the champion of the Hochelagas. 
A captive stag is let loose, and he is to be run down. The racer who brings in the 
antlers is the winner. During the absence of the runners on this all-day race, a well 
contested and most warmly applauded canoe race between the tribes takes place 
around the island. The war canoes with seventeen fully painted and bedecked 
Indians was a sight to be remembered. The winner of the race for the deer, 
Hiawatha, staggers in at length carrying the skin and antlers of the deer on his 
shoulders. He is joyously received by his tribe but the Black Wolverine takes his 
defeat in a very bitter way. There has been a great deal of slumbering envy and 
malice for some time on the part of Algonquins and Hurons against the Iroquois 
who are wealthy as compared to their poorer northern neighbors. The red feather 
is taken from his own head dress by Awitharoa and placed upon the head of 
Hiawatha who was made a chief as the swiftest of warriors and is now to be 
privileged to light the sacred fire, to call a council if necessary and to sit therein 
with the other chiefs of the tribe. Hiawatha has won for himself the undying 
enmity of the Black Wolverine. 

An ancient tribal custom and a pretty one is the next scene. It is the corn dance 
or harvest festival. Three young maidens are chosen and dressed to represent the 
spirits of corn, maize and bean. Illustrative songs and dances, with the grinding 
of corn by pounding it in receptacles of wood or stone, form part of the ceremonies. 



88 State of New York 



An effective scene is one in which a moose skin covers two men, the man in 
advance furnishing the fore-legs and the man in the rear the hind-legs. Hiawatha 
detects the deception and a hunt is made for the spies. War finally breaks out 
and the most realistic siege of the stockade takes place ; it is full of life and splendid 
action. The Iroquois are driven from Montreal Island to Lake Champlain. 
Finally here Hiawatha learns that peace is better than incessant war and after 
many years succeeds in establishing the Confederacy of the Five Nations. 

This story is told in the " Master of Life," a well written book, the author of 
which is Mr. W. D. Lighthall of Montreal. Mr. L. O. Armstrong added to the 
story of the book the Battle of Lake Champlain and the arrival of Corlaer from 
the Hudson. It was remarkable that Mr. Armstrong should have succeeded in 
furnishing a descendant of the early French settlers to take the part of Champlain, 
and it was a fortunate coincidence that he should secure a young Hollander who 
has been accepted by and is living with the tribe in Caughnawaga to play the 
part of Corlaer. 

The " Spectator " in the Outlook wrote as follows of the play: 

Perhaps the Spectator may be prejudiced, for he spent three days with the 
Indians, but for him one of the most interesting features was the Indian repre- 
sentation of the story of Hiawatha, the reputed organizer of the Five Nations. In 
their pageant, given daily on a floating stage three hundred feet long, which was 
towed from place to place, they gave a dramatic portrayal of the subject of Senator 
Root's historical address. Amid the surroundings of a fortified Indian village 
which included an elm-bark long house and elm-bark tepees, set down in a grove of 
evergreen, 150 Mohawks acted the story of the formation of the great 
Indian confederacy whose friendliness for the English, Senator Root pointed 
out in his historical address, was largely responsible for the fact that English rather 
than French is spoken south of the Canadian line. The tale depicted on Lake 
Champlain by the red men from Caughnawaga was not Longfellow's. It was 
explained to the Spectator that several tribes have myths about a personality bearing 
the name of Hiawatha who was of high character and ability, and tried to lead his 
people toward the higher plane of civilization called Peace. According to the 
story of the play, which is woven around historical facts, Hiawatha, in his youth, 
desired to perform deeds which would add to the glory of his people. The life 
of a warrior seemed to be the way of accomplishing his purpose. The Great Spirit, 
however, in a revelation told him that the true road to prosperity and content was 
the way of peace. Thereafter he sought to maintain peace. His people, attacked 
by the Hurons, were driven from the island which is now the seat of the city of 



The Champlain Tercentenary 89 



Montreal, into the Champlain country, and later into the valley of the Mohawk, 
where the tribe received the name of Mohawk. Hiawatha set out to form a com- 
bination of the strongest tribes in the East, with the intention of creating a political 
confederacy which should be so strong that no alien tribe would venture to attack 
any of them. This is the prototype of the modern method of bringing about peace 
in business. History shows, and Senator Root indicated, that this confederation 
possessed a higher form of civilization than the scattered tribes around it. Its 
political forms were advanced. Its members depended upon agriculture for their 
food supply, rather than upon the less certain sources of fishing and hunting. They 
lived in fixed abodes — the long houses of elm bark. When Champlain and his 
white companions in July, 1 609, armed with guns, accompanied the Hurons and 
Algonquins along the shores of Lake Champlain and launched bolts from their 
" firesticks " upon the Iroquois near Ticonderoga, to the discomfiture of the historic 
opponents of the Hurons, they unwittingly paved the way for the alliance of the 
Iroquois with the English, an alliance which ultimately led to the defeat of the 
French. This illustration of the great matters which are kindled by little fires was 
portrayed by the Indians with a zest that drew great audiences and held them 
spell-bound. The thread of the story was strung with bright-colored beads which 
illustrated the manners and customs of the Indians. There were enacted the smok- 
ing of the peace pipe, stag and canoe races, a hunting contest, a corn festival 
(which is still celebrated at the harvest season by hundreds of pagan Indians in 
Canada), death chants, war dances, battles, sacrifices, and the ceremony of 
adoption. 

If the pageant symbolizing the significance of Lake Champlain's part in the 
history of America interested the Spectator, he must confess that the descendants 
of the Iroquois who presented it, interested him even more. Their ability and 
character were such as to help one to understand the civilization of their famous 
sires. Those who spoke English possessed a vocabulary and enunciated their 
words with a clarity which astonished the Spectator. Industrious, kindly, courteous, 
not a single angry or profane word did the Spectator hear uttered by an Indian 
during the three days that he spent in their company. Among those who took 
part in the pageant were a school teacher; grizzled veterans of the American Civil, 
the Boer, and other wars, who had won medals in the service; expert bridge- 
builders; and, among the women, a young, full-blooded Indian woman who is 
employed as a stenographer and typewriter in the main office of one of Canada's 
great railways. There were said to be descendants of Joseph Brant and Eunice 
Williams also among the performers. The evident enjoyment of the Indians in 
the presentation of their ceremonials gave these added interest. It was a proud 
moment when, in a sham battle, they swarmed up the slope of Ticonderoga, climbed 



90 State of New York 



over the parapet, scattering more than a hundred spectators, pulled down the flag, 
and. standing on the crest of the restored bastion, with a mighty shout waved their 
spears and bows in the face of the belated troops of the National Guard. The 
repetition of Ethan Allen's successful sally compensated them for their defeat by 
the guardsmen the previous day in the sham battle at Crown Point. 

The libretto of the play of " Hiawatha " the Mohawk, " depicting 
the siege of Hochelaga and the battle of Champlain," will be found in 
the appendix to this volume. 



II. CHAMPLAIN SUNDAY 

91 



II. CHAMPLAIN SUNDAY 

Sermons by Cardinal Gibbons and Others 

THE EXERCISES of celebration week opened on Sunday, July 4th, 
with impressive services in Roman Catholic and Protestant churches 
throughout the region. At Plattsburgh, Burlington, and other 
towns, a beautiful " order of worship for religious exercises in connection 
with the observance of the tercentenary of the discovery " was employed 
in Protestant Episcopal and churches of other denominations. In Ver- 
mont, Governor Prouty had proclaimed this July 4th as " Champlain 
Sunday," and the special occasion was generally observed even in com- 
munities remote from the lake. The order of service was largely musical 
and responsive, being varied at the discretion of the different congregations 
and adapted to circumstances; but, as observed generally throughout the 
region, it was that prepared by Rev. John M. Thomas, D. D., President 
of Middlebury College and one of the Vermont Tercentenary Commis- 
sioners, and was as follows: 

ORDER OF SERVICE 
Organ Voluntary. 

The Doxology. 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; 
Praise Him. all creatures here below; 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host: 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. 

Sentence. (By the minister) 

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The 
Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him 
in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him: He also will 
hear their cry, and will save them. 

93 



94 State of New York 



ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 

The Invocation. 

Eternal God, our Maker and our Lord, Giver of all grace, from whom 
every good prayer cometh, and who pourest Thy Spirit upon all who seek 
Thee; deliver us, when we draw nigh to Thee, from coldness of heart 
and wanderings of mind; that with steadfast thoughts and pure affections 
we may worship Thee in spirit and truth, and that by the remembrance 
of the days of old, and of the brave men who have nobly served Thee, 
their country, and their fellow men, our hearts may be stirred to grateful 
trust in Thy providence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Hymn. " O God of Bethel, by Whose Hand." (Tune, Azmon.) 

O God of Bethel, by whose hand 

Thy people still are fed; 
Who through this weary pilgrimage 

Hast all our fathers led! 

Our vows, our prayers, we now present 

Before thy throne of grace; 
God of our fathers! be the God 

Of their succeeding race. 

Through each perplexing path of life 

Our wandering footsteps guide; 
Give us, each day, our daily bread. 

And raiment fit provide. 

Oh, spread thy covering wings around 

Till all our wanderings cease. 
And at our Father's loved abode. 

Our souls arrive in peace. 

Such blessings from thy gracious hand 

Our humble prayers implore! 
And thou shalt be our chosen God, 

Our portion evermore. Amen, 



The Champlain Tercentenary 95 



ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 
Responsive Reading. (Psalm CVII: 1-16. 23-43.) 

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth 
forever. 

Lei the redeemed of the Lord sa)) so, X»hom he hath redeemed from 
the hand of the enemy; 

And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west; 
from the north, and from the south. 

r/iep Tvandered in the mlderness in a solitar}) way: they found no city 
to divell in. 

Hungry and thirsty: their soul fainted in them. 

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble: and he delivered them 
out of their distresses. 

And he led them forth by the right way: that they might go to a city of 
habitation. 

O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness: and for his wonder- 
ful works to the children of men! 

For he satisfieth the longing soul: and filleth the hungry soul with 
goodness. 

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death: being bound in 
affliction and iron; 

Because they rebelled against the words of God: and contemned the 
counsel of the Most High. 

Therefore he brought down their heart with labour: they fell down, and 
there was none to help. 

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble: and he saved them out 
of their distresses. 

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death: and brake 
their bands in sunder. 

O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness: and for his wonder- 
ful works to the children of men! 

For he hath broken the gates of brass: and cut the bars of iron in sunder. 

They that go down to the sea in ships: that do business in great waters; 

These see the works of the Lord: and his wonders in the deep. 

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind: which lifteth up the 
waves thereof. 

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their 
soul is melted because of trouble. 



96 State of New York 



ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man: and are at their 
wit's end. 

Then //lep cr^ unto the Lord in their trouble: and he bringeth them out 
of their distresses. 

He maketh the storm a calm: so that the waves thereof are still. 

Then are the^ glad because they be quiet: so he bringeth them unto their 
desired haven. 

O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness : and for his wonder- 
ful works to the children of men! 

Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people: and praise 
him in the assembly of the elders. 

He turneth rivers into a wilderness : and the watersprings into dry ground ; 

A fruitful land into barrenness: for the wickedness of them that dn^ell 
therein. 

He turneth the wilderness into a standing water: and dry ground into 
watersprings. 

And there he maketh the hungry to dwell: that they may prepare a city 
for habitation. 

And sow the fields, and plant vineyards: which may yield fruits of 
increase. 

He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly: and suffereth 
not their cattle to decrease. 

Again, they are diminished and brought low; through oppression, 
affliction, and sorrow. 

He poureth contempt upon princes: and causeth them to wander in the 
wilderness, where there is no Way. 

Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction: and maketh him families 
like a flock. 

The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her 
mouth. 

Whoso is wise, and will observe these things: even they shall understand 
the loving kindness of the Lord. 

Gloria Patri. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost; 
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without 
end. Amen. 




Copyriglit and hy ormrtcsy of Moffett Studio, ChicaKO, 111. 

HON. SETH LOW 




By courtesy of Glbion, Cliloiigo 

JUDGE ALBERT C. BARNES 




Copyripht and by r.iiirtor<y of Harris A Kwing, Washlngtou, I'. C. 

DR. HAMILTON W. MABIE 




\ 



JUDGE WENDELL P. STAFFORD 



The Champlain Tercentenary 97 

ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 
Scripture Lesson. (Deuteronomy VIII.) 

Anthem. (A Te Deum, Gloria in Excelsis, or other appropriate anthem.) 

The Pastoral Prayer. (A prayer of thanksgiving and supplication, which 
may include the f(Jllowing) : 

A Thanksgining for Peace. » 

Almighty and everlasting God, who make^t wars to cease unto the ends 
of the earlh; we praise and magnify that great mercy, whereby Thou hast 
not only freed our borders from every enemy, and given us rest and 
quietness, but out of Thine abundant goodness art shedding down the same 
blessed tranquillity upon the nations round about us; and we humbly beseech 
Thee, that, being subdued by Thy truth, they may evermore dwell together 
in love as one family of mankind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

A Prayer for Our Country. 

O most powerful Lord God, blessed and only Potentate, who hast 
granted unto our country liberty, and established our Nation in righteous- 
ness by the people's will: Guide and direct the multitudes whom Thou 
hast ordained in power, by Thy pure wisdom and Thy just laws; that 
their counsels may be filled with knowledge and equity, and the whole estate 
of the Commonwealth be preserved in peace, unity, strength, and honour: 
And take under Thy governance and protection. Thy servants, the Presi- 
dent, the Governor of this State, the lawgivers, the judges, the counsellors, 
the magistrates, and all who are entrusted with authority; so defending 
them from all evil and enriching them with all needed good, that the 
people may prosper in freedom beneath an equal law, and our Nation may 
magnify Thy Name in nil the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

A Prayer for Champlain Sunday. 

Almighty God, who in the former time didst lead our fathers forth into 
a wealthy place; give Thy grace, we humbly beseech Thee, to us their 
children, that we may always approve ourselves a people mindful of Thy 
favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, 
sound learning, and pure manners. Defend our liberties, preserve our 
unity. Save us from violence, discord and confusion, from pride and 
arrogancy, and from every evil way. Fashion into one happy people the 



98 State of New York 



ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 

multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with 
the spirit of wisdom those whom we entrust in Thy Name with the author- 
ity of governance, to the end that there be peace at home, and that we 
keep a place among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, 
fill our hearts with thankfulness; and in the day of trouble, suffer not our 
trust in Thee to fail; all which we ask for Jesus Christ's sake, Thy Son, 
our Lord. Amen. 

The Lord's Prayer. (To be said by Minister and People.) 

Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy king- 
dom come. Thy Will be done in earth. As it is in heaven. Give us this 
day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debt- 
ors. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil: For Thine 
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 

Hymn. " O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand." (Tune, Duke Street.) 

O God, beneath thy guiding hand. 

Our exiled fathers crossed the sea. 
And when they trod the wintry strand. 

With prayer and psalm they worshipped Thee. 

Thou heardst, well pleased, the song, the prayer — 

Thy blessing came; and still its power 
Shall onward through all ages bear 

The memory of that holy hour. 

What change! through pathless wilds no more 

The fierce and naked savage roams: 
Sweet praise, along the cultured shore. 

Breaks from ten thousand happy homes. 

Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God 

Came with those exiles o'er the waves, 
And where their pilgrim feet have trod. 

The God they trusted guards their graves. 

And here Thy name, O God of love. 

Their children's children shall adore. 
Till these eternal hills remove 

And spring adorns the earth no more. Amen. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 99 



'ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 

The Offering. [At the discretion of the minister and the congregation, the 
offering may be devoted to the fund for the erection of a permanent 
memorial to Samuel Champlain.) 

The Sermon. [A patriotic discourse related to the discovery of the territory of 
Lake Champlain by Samuel Champlain, or other historical 
events. ] 

Prayer. 

Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the words, which we 
have heard this day with our outward ears, may through Thy grace be so 
grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit 
of good living, to the honour and praise of Thy Name; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. 

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works 
do proceed; Give unto Thy servants that peace which the world cannot 
give; that both our hearts may be set to obey Thy commandments, and 
also that by Thee, we. being defended from the fear of our enemies, may 
pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our 
Saviour. Amen. 

Hymn. "America." 

My country! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty. 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died! 
Land of the Pilgrim's pride! 
From every mountain side 
Let freedom ring! 



My native country, thee — 
Land of the noble, free — 

Thy name I love; 
I love thy rocks and rills. 
Thy woods and templed hills 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 



100 State of New York 



ORDER OF SERVICE — Conlinued 

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song: 
Let mortal tongues awake: 
Let all that breathe partake; 
Let rocks their silence break. 

The sound prolong. 

Our fathers' God! to Thee, 
Author of liberty. 

To Thee we sing: 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by Thy might. 

Great God, our King! Amen. 
Benediction. 

The Praise of Famous Men. 

Let us now praise famous men. 

And our fathers that begat us. 

The Lord hath wrought great glory by them 

Through His great power from the beginning. 

Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms. 

Men renowned for their power. 

Giving counsel by their understanding. 

And declaring prophecies: 

Leaders of the people by their counsels. 

And by their knowledge of learning meet for the people. 

Wise and eloquent in their instructions: 

Rich men furnished with ability. 

Living peaceably in their habitations: 

All these were honored in their generations. 

And were the glory of their times. 

There be of them, that have left a name behind them. 

That their praises might be reported. 

These were merciful men. 

Whose righteousness hath not been forgotten. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 101 



ORDER OF SERVICE — Continued 

With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance. 

And their children are within the covenant. 

Their seed standeth fast. 

And their children are within the covenant. 

Their seed standeth fast. 

And their children for their sakes. 

Their seed shall remain forever, 

And their glory shall not be blotted out. 

Their bodies are buried in peace; 

But their name liveth for evermore. 

The people will tell of their wisdom. 

And the congregation will shew forth their praise. 

— [From " The Wisdom of the Son of Sirach," Ch. XLIV.] 

Nowhere did the observance of the day present a more impressive 
spectacle than at Burlington where an assemblage estimated above five 
thousand gathered in the open air at the lake front and shared in a vesper 
service arranged in honor of Champlain. Among the officiating clergy 
were the Revs. W. J. O'Sullivan, of Montpelier, Vt., and T. M. Aubin, 
of Swanton, Vt. A large part of the worshippers had come from Mon- 
treal as participants in a pilgrimage. The climax of the service was 
reached when the vast throng joined in a mighty chorus in the impassioned 
strains of " Holy God, We Praise Thy Name." 

Bishop Thomas M. A. Burke, of Albany, was the officiating deacon, 
with Right Rev. A. Racicot, auxiliary of Montreal, and Right Rev. 
Monsignor John J. Walsh, of Troy, assisting. 

Earlier in the day, high mass was said at St. Joseph's church and a 
pontifical mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. A feature of the service at 
St. Joseph's was the confirmation of more than one hundred children. 

Special services were held at St. Paul's Episcopal church, where the 
sermon was delivered by Bishop Arthur C. A. Hall, of Vermont. 

Rev. G. G. Atkins, D. D., preached at the First Congregational 
church, and Rev. S. M. Crothers, D. D., of Harvard, at the Unitarian 
church in Burlington, Vt. 



W2 State of New York 

Across the lake at Cliff Haven, another large congregation gathered 
on the beautiful grounds overlooking the water, flanked by cedar groves. 
The largest concourse of people ever assembled on the grounds of the 
Summer School was present, not only of Roman Catholics, but of many 
non-Catholics, desirous of witnessing the impressive ceremonies. At the 
appointed hour, a procession moved along the lakeside path to the grove, 
where was erected a great altar of white birch, with miniature gothic 
arches. On either side of the tabernacle stood three large candelabra; 
above them was a golden crucifix, and back of it, slighdy elevated, a 
pedestal of white birch was surmounted by the statue of Our Lady of 
the Lake. The delicate blue robe of the statue contrasted with the back- 
ground of green and white, the whole making a picture of exceeding 
beauty. The procession was headed by a cross bearer, followed by 
acolytes, ladies in white, and the choir of surpliced choristers. Then 
came the clergy, the officiating bishop, the officer of the mass, and last. 
His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons. The celebrant was the Right 
Rev. Thomas F. Hickey, Bishop of Rochester. He was assisted by 
many clergymen and church prelates. Among those in attendance were : 
The Rt. Rev. John J. Collins, Bishop of Jamaica, W. L ; the Rt. Rev. 
Charles H. Colton. Bishop of Buffalo; the Rt. Rev. Patrick W. Ludden, 
Bishop of Syracuse ; the Rev. P. S. McSherry, Bishop of South Africa ; 
and numerous bishops and clergy from Canada. The music was in 
charge of St. Patrick's choir of Montreal, of one hundred voices. After 
the mass a procession escorted Cardinal Gibbons to the New York cottage, 
his temporary residence. Later the benediction of the Sacrament took 
place in the open-air sanctuary. 

The Rt. Rev. Dennis J. McMahon, President of the Catholic Sum- 
mer School at Cliff Haven, addressed the congregation in the following 
words : 

My dear friends, it is certainly with a great deal of pleasure that today we 
celebrate the feast of the festival of the independence of our country. It is very 
fitting that this day should also be the day upon which we should celebrate the 
tercentenary of the discovery of this lake upon which we live. It is a great pleasure 



The Champlain Tercentenary 103 



for us to have so many of our friends and those of our own religion coming from 
distant points, from Boston, aye, from Texas, even from Cahfornia, in order that 
they may join with us in this great feast of to-day. A year ago Canada celebrated 
the feast, not exactly the same one, but it was in honor of him who discovered the 
lake which bears his name, and so Canada to-day joins with us by sending us 
these sweet singers, this chorus that gladdens the hearts of all of us, and I am sure 
sends praises up to the Almighty. We have to thank very kindly and with a great 
deal of gratitude the rector of St. Peter's church of Montreal, and the singers as 
well, who have come here to do us honor on this festival. We have also to thank 
the priests and the bishops who have come likewise to join with us — the Bishop 
of Cape Town, from South Africa, the Bishop of Jamaica, from the West Indies, 
and our own good Bishop Colton of Buffalo, and the Monsignors also have come 
to give us their meed of honor, their meed of respect, by reason of their presence 
at the great feast we are celebrating to-day; and need I say besides the celebrants 
of the mass, we have one of our old time friends of the Summer School who was 
with us from the beginning, and our praises are well due to him, the primate of 
America, whose name is in the hearts as well as in the thoughts of everyone of us 
in this country when we speak of the Catholic church, our own dear Cardinal 
Gibbons, who at a great deal of trouble to himself, at an advanced age, has come 
so long a distance in order that he may join with us on this occasion. Therefore 
we thank him, as we thank this large attendance that comes from all parts of this 
country here to join in this celebration. Praises be to God for the independence 
of our country, praise and honor as well to that man who discovered the lake upon 
whose shores we pass such a delightful day. We have to thank God in the mass 
this morning for all the favors that we in the Summer School have received on the 
shores of this lake, so many during these fifteen years or more, and I want to say 
of all the celebrations I think this one to-day is without a peer in the past history 
of this lake. I ask you all earnestly and fervently to send up your prayers for the 
benefit of this school under whose auspices this celebration is held and also for 
the Right Reverend and Most Reverend prelates who are with us here to-day. 

The sermon on this occasion, preached by His Eminence Cardinal 
Gibbons, was as follows: 

The Sermon by Cardinal Gibbons. 

The Gospel appointed to be read in the mass of to-day is a statement from the 
1 6th chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. " At that time Jesus 
came into the quarters of Caesarea Phillippi, and he asked his disciples, saying. 
Who do men say that the son of man is? They staled, some John the Baptist, 



104 State of New York 



others Elias, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Jesus saith to them. 
Whom do you say I am? Simon Peter answered and said. Thou art Christ, the 
son of the hving God; and Jesus answering said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon 
Barjona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who 
is in heaven, and I say to thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build 
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto 
thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on 
earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth 
shall be loosed also in heaven." 

Right reverend fathers, dearly beloved brethren, friends and patrons of the 
Summer School, let us transport ourselves this morning to a period of two thousand 
years ago, and let us stand in spirit not by the shores of this beautiful lake but in 
the city of Rome, and let us stand upon one of Rome's seven hills, and look down 
upon that great Pagan city teeming with a population estimated by the historian 
Gibbon at some three million of inhabitants. We find that city given up to every 
kind of idolatry; they worshipped the sun and the moon and the stars of the even; 
they worshipped the mountains and the lakes; every striking object in nature had 
its divinity. They worshipped everything except God alone, to whom all divine 
homage is due; in the language of the apostle of the Gentiles, they changed the 
glory of the incorruptible God into the image and likeness of corruptible man, and 
of birds and of beasts and of creeping things, and they worshipped the creature 
instead of the Creator, who is blessed forevermore. 

What I say of Rome I might say of the Roman Empire, because Rome was 
mistress of the world. That empire extended into Asia as far as the banks of the 
Euphrates; it extended into Africa to Mauretania and in Europe as far as the 
river Danube. The whole world with the exception, I might say, of Palestine, 
was buried in the darkness of idolatry. Such was the condition of things and of 
society when Christ uttered the words recorded in this day's gospel; and he calls 
around him twelve poor, illiterate men, men without learning, men without wealth, 
men without the prestige of fame, men without any family or social or political 
influence, men destitute of any of these qualities v/hich at all times are considered 
essential for the success of any great enterprise. He calls upon them to effect the 
most mighty moral revolution that ever occurred in the history of mankind; he 
calls upon them to uproot idolatry from the face of the earth, and to establish in 
its stead the worship of the one true and living God; he calls upon them to uproot 
those human passions from the breasts of men, and to plant in their stead the love 
of our Savior Jesus Christ. The apostles had implicit confidence in their divine 
Master; they had seen the miracles which he wrought; they knew that he was 
God; they knew that his word was power, that his work was omnipotence; they 



The Champlain Tercentenary 105 



knew that he who said of old, " Let there be hght '* and hght was; who said, ** Let 
the earth bring forth its fruit," and it came forth, — they knew that he would now 
through their instrumentality cause the light to shine in the darkened intellects of 
men, and the fruits of sanctification to grow abundant in their hearts; and there- 
fore they go forth into the world, nothing hesitating, determined to put every 
portion of the Roman Empire under the sweet sway of the gospel of Jesus Christ; 
and they dismembered all the Roman Empire by themselves. Peter, whose name 
is mentioned to-day in the gospel is the first to speak or to proclaim the gospel 
of Christ in the streets of Jerusalem, and he by one sermon converts three thou- 
sand souls, and no doubt many of those that were converted were witnesses of his 
crucifixion, and perhaps even had a share in his death. He afterwards proceeds 
to Antioch, where he establishes himself, and finally is martyred in Rome. Paul, 
the great apostle of the Gentiles, traversed through various portions of Asia and 
Europe, carrying to them the torch of faith. Saint James evangelized Galilee 
and Judea, Saint John preaches the gospel in Ephesus and the surrounding country; 
and the gospel was carried to remote India. You might say of them in the language 
of the inspired prophet their word had gone forth to the whole world and their 
voice to the very bounds thereof. 

But if we are surprised, my brethren, with what I might call the pure audacity 
of a few ignorant, uninfluential men undertaking the herculean task of converting the 
nations, we are still more surprised at the success which attends their labors. In a 
very few years after Christ's death we find the Christian religion spread throughout 
the Roman Empire. Saint Paul, about thirty years after the crucifixion of our 
Savior, wrote these words to the Romans: " We give thanks," he says, " through 
Jesus Christ that your faith is spoken of throughout the world," and of course 
spoken of by men that were in sympathy and in communion with the faith of Rome. 
Justin Martyr, whose death occurred about sixty-six years after the death of Saint 
John the Evangelist, uses these words: " There is no race," he says, " or tribe 
or people, whether Greeks or barbarians, among whom prayer and sacrifice are 
not offered up to God through Christ and him crucified." And Tertullian, who 
was born about 1 60 of the Christian era, does not hesitate to write these words 
to the Roman emperor: " We are of yesterday and we have filled your empire, 
your cities, your towns, your hamlets, your forum, your Senate, j'our armies, as 
Christians; we have left nothing to you except your empty temples." And Saint 
Irenaeus employs the same idea in different language, and he is careful to remind 
us of the unity of the faith that then prevailed, for he says: " As the light which 
comes from the sun is always the same because it comes from the same luminary 
of the day, so is the light of faith everywhere the same because it proceeds from 
Jesus Christ, the sun of justice." 



106 State of New York 



What a contrast, brethren, presents itself to our minds between the bloody 
victories achieved by the great generals of antiquity on the one hand and the 
peaceful victories acquired by the apostles and their immediate successors, whether 
we consider the weapons with which they fought their battles which they won or 
the duration of their victories. Alexander the Great conquered kingdom after 
kingdom, but scarcely was he cold in his grave when his empire was dismembered 
and divided among his lieutenants. He conquered by the sword, and by the 
sword he kept his subjects in bondage, and yet, as I say, in a few years all that 
great empire passed away. The apostles conquered kingdoms to their divine 
master, not by force but by persuasion; not by the material sword, but by the 
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God; not by shedding the blood of other 
men but by the shedding of their own blood ; not by enslaving bodies of men, but 
by rescuing their souls from spiritual bondage; and that great republic of the church 
which they established exists unto this day, and has extended her lines far and 
wide, and is kept together not by frowning fortifications, not by standing armies, 
but by the irresistible influence of moral and religious sanction. 

What does this prove, my brethren? It proves that peace hath her victories 
as well as war — yea, victories more substantial and more enduring. It proves 
that all schemes that are conceived in passion and carried out by lawless ambition 
are destined, like the mountain torrent, to carry ruin before them and leave deso- 
lation after them, whilst the peaceful mission of men assembled together as we are 
under the inspiration of heaven is destined, like the gentle dew of heaven, to bring 
down blessings from God and bear abundant fruit in due season. 

Now, my dear friends, no dispassionate man when he studies the history of 
the early church can fail to discern the divine stamp of God upon its brow. When 
we consider the weakness of the apostles and the great victories which they gained, 
when we consider the opposition which they met at every step, the difficulties they 
encountered, the hostility which they met from the government itself, and from the 
people, from the populace, and from the learned, from every class of society — 
above all, when we call to mind that they preached a religion of morality to people 
whose religion had not only tolerated but sanctioned the most degrading morals, 
we are bound to confess that the finger of God is here, and that the religion of 
Christ is the religion of God himself. My brothers, the wisdom of God is mani- 
fested in the very disproportion we find between the means and the end. Suppose, 
for instance, that Christ had come in all the power of imperial majesty surrounded 
by legions of soldiers, with all the power of Caesar on his part; suppose he came 
to establish the Christian religion with this force, what would the world say? The 
world would say, *' There is no miracle here, for the faith of Christ was established 
not by the finger of God, but by the arm of the flesh." Or, suppose again, that 



The Champlain Tercentenary 107 



Christ had impressed into the service of his church the learned men of those days, 
the Ciceros, the Virgils, the Ovids and men like Tacitus, who wielded their pens 
and spoke eloquent language to the people in defense of the Christian religion, the 
world would say, " There is no miracle here, for the church of Christ was 
established not by the folly of the cross but by the persuasive words of human 
wisdom." Or, again, suppose Christ had come with all the wealth of a millionaire, 
dispensing money and bribes and largesses in every direction, if that were the case 
the people would say with truth, " There is no miracle here, for the church was 
established not by the pearl of great price, but by the gold that glitters." But 
when we see the religion of our Savior established by weakness and poverty and 
by these elements that are regarded with contempt by the world, then we are 
reminded of the words of the apostle of the Gentiles: " The foolish things of this 
world hath God chosen that he might confound the wise, and the weak things of 
this world hath God chosen that he might confound the strong, and the things that 
are contemptible and the things that are not, hath God chosen that he might 
confound the things that are, that no glory should glory in his sight." 

We are here to-day assembled, my dear friends, as the Right Reverend clergy- 
man has said, we are here assembled to commemorate the three hundredth anni- 
versary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by the illustrious man who gave his 
name to this lake. Champlain was a grand character; he was not only an explorer 
but he was, like the apostles themselves, endowed with the spirit of an apostle, and 
his great aim in life, in all his missions, in all his journeys, was the conversion to 
Christianity of the aboriginal tribes, and we may form some idea of the Christian 
character of that man by one sentence which he uttered when he said that " the 
conversion of one soul is of more value than the founding of an empire." And 
there are heroes in this day. We owe indebtedness to France for the great men 
she sent to our country. Many great apostles preceded and accompanied and 
followed Champlain across the Atlantic. They traversed our country. They 
discovered our mountains and valleys, our lakes and our rivers. They carried in 
one hand the torch of faith and in the other the torch of science, and as an evidence 
of the profound learning which characterized those men, I may remark that the 
charts of this country which they sent to the mother country may be regarded even 
at this day as models, and models of topographical accuracy. And now, my 
friends, if those men, if Champlain and the great missionaries who accompanied 
him, accomplished so much in their day, when they had no other ships except frail 
canoes, when they had no other roads except eternal snows and virgin forests and 
desert wastes, if they had no compass but the naked eye, if they had no other guide 
except faith and hope and God, if they accomplished so much in their day, how 
much more should not we now accomplish in our day by the aid of railroads and 



108 State of New York 



steamships and other apphances of Christian civilization? Yes, we bless you, all 
men of genius, and we bless your inventions, and we will impress you into the 
service of the church, and we will say with the Psalmist, " the sun and moon bless 
the Lord; lightnings and clouds bless the Lord; fire and heat bless the Lord; all 
ye works of the Lord praise the Lord, bless him and exalt him above all forever." 

And may I not say with truth, friends and patrons of this great Summer School, 
may I not say without exaggeration, that you also participate in the spirit of the 
apostles and in the spirit of Champlain. What were the two most powerful 
agencies that moved that great Champlain? He was actuated by a desire for the 
glory of France and the glory of God. Are you not actuated, brethren, by a 
love of your country not less ardent than his love for his country, and have you 
not in your breast that same zeal for God which burned also in his breast? Oh, 
brethren, when the bishop and the clergy and the people are united, as you are in 
any cause looking toward the advancement of religion and morality and the better- 
ment of society, there is no such word as fail. You are doing the works of God, 
and God is with you, and when God is with us who can be against us? And 
why should you not co-operate with your clergy as you are doing? Why should 
you not, I say, co-operate; and you do co-operate; and by this co-operation you 
form a triple cord that cannot be broken, you form a triple alliance far more 
formidable and more powerful and more enduring than the triple alliance of kings 
and princes, because yours is not an alliance of flesh and blood, but it is an alliance 
cemented by the divine virtues of faith and hope and charity. And why, I say, 
should you not co-operate with your bishops and clergy? Are you not all children 
of the same father? Are you not all brothers and sisters of the same Christ? 
Are you not all sanctified by the same spirit, no matter what may be your par- 
ticular avocation. There are diversities of spirits of the apostles of Christ; there 
are diversities of ministers of the same Lord; there are diversities of operations for 
the same God that worketh all in all. Unite with us then, brethren, and to-day 
on this joyous and memorial occasion record two vows; fidelity to your country 
and fidelity to your God. 

Love your country, brethren. No man should be a drone in the social bee hive 
in our country. No American citizen should be an indifferent spectator of the 
social and moral and religious and economic and even political problems that are 
agitated around us. As we are all supported in the possession of life and property 
by the arm of a strong and enlightened government, so should we all co-operate 
in sustaining the hand that holds the reins of government. Above all, my brethren, 
love the holy church, which is the great bulwark of society, and, I say, the essential 
means of perpetuating our beautiful and noble system of government. Love your 
church. Love her institutions. Take an active, personal, loyal interest in every- 



The Champlain Tercentenary 109 



thing that concerns the welfare of rehgion and of God Almighty, and you will 
register a vow to-day and say from your hearts in the words of the apostle of 
the Gentiles: " Who shall separate me from the love of God and of his holy church? 
Shall tribulation or distress or nakedness or persecution of the soul? No. I am 
persuaded that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor 
heighth nor might nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me 
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." May God bless you. 

Elsewhere around the lake, wherever there was a Roman Catholic 
parish or mission, the services of this day made special recognition of the 
Champlain anniversary. At the shrine of Ste. Anne, on Isle La Motte, 
elaborate services of much interest were held. These are further noted 
on a subsequent page of this report, in connection with an account of the 
historical exercises on that island. 

In Plattsburgh, the morning service at Trinity Episcopal church was 
conducted by Coadjutor Bishop Richard H. Nelson of Albany, who 
preached the following sermon: 

Sermon of Bishop Nelson 

Text: Mlcah IV: 2 — "And many nations shall come and say, Come and let us go up lo 
the Mountain of the Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob." 

The North American continent appears to have been held in reserve for the 
working out of a Divine purpose to which all nations of the earth have contributed 
and in which all are destined to share. Toward this land many forces have con- 
verged, and out of much strife a nation has arisen which is destined to pay its 
indebtedness to many peoples by a rich contribution to the world's civilization. 

The special event which we commemorate this year must be studied in its 
relation to the various attempts made by European nations to establish themselves 
on these shores, and to claim for their respective monarchs a continent which no 
one of them was destined to retain. 

For a generation after the discovery of America, Spain and Portugal remained 
in undisputed possession of the newly found continent. Under a grant from Pope 
Alexander VI in 1 493, the unexplored regions of the earth were divided by a 
meridian passing one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands. 
All the countries west of this were assigned to Spain, and those to the east were 
given to Portugal, except so far as any lands were already occupied by Christian 
nations. The pretensions of Spain and Portugal were not recognized by other 



1 1 State of New York 



European nations, and it was not long before equally large claims were made by 
two kingdoms whose ancient rivalry was destined to perpetuate itself in a long and 
bitter contest for the sovereignty of America. 

In speaking of England and France as the two principal rivals for the possession 
of the New World, we are not unmindful of the valuable contributions made by 
Holland and other kingdoms in the way of discovery, settlement and development 
of resources. But, after all due allowance is made for the influence of others, 
it remains true that the real struggle for sovereignty lay between those two nations 
which had for generations breathed mutual defiance across the English channel. 

In 1523, a French expedition under Verrazano explored the Atlantic coast 
from the Carolinas to Newfoundland and claimed it for France. Ten years later 
Jacques Cartier discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and soon after ascended the 
great river as far as Hochelaga, or Montreal, proclaiming it as the property of the 
French king. Passing over the ill-fated attempts of the Huguenots under the 
direction of Admiral Coligny to settle at various points along the coast, we may 
next note the remarkable man whose discoveries and accomplishments we are now 
commemorating. 

Samuel Champlain was the founder of Quebec, the discoverer of the lake 
which bears his name, the explorer of the St. Lawrence river to Lake Ontario, and 
of the Ottawa river to its source, and he was the first white man to reach the 
Georgian Bay. 

He was not merely a bold explorer, but a far-sighted statesman, who for thirty 
years strove to establish a sound colonial policy which might have preserved for 
France one of its richest inheritances. By a wise instinct, he established friendly 
relations with the Indians living north of the St. Lawrence river, and while this 
alliance with the Algonquins and Hurons brought him into conflict with the 
Iroquois, it secured for the French the indispensable aid of the northern tribes in 
developing the vast resources of the fur trade. 

Parallel to these explorations and claims of France we must follow the attempts 
of English adventurers to secure a foothold in the New World. The first definite 
claim of England is to be found in the Royal Patent issued in 1578 to Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert, " For the inhabiting and planting of our own people In America." 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland in 1583 regardless of 
the earlier French claims. Sir Walter Raleigh's attempts to plant colonies in the 
Island of Roanoke in 1585 and 1587 came to nothing, but it should be noted 
that these were regarded as justifying England's claim to the coasts of North 
America to which region was given the general name of Virginia. The English 
settlements at Jamestown in 1607 and at Plymouth in 1620 gave substance to 
claims which had hitherto been little more than compliments to the queen. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



In all this earlier work of exploration and settlement the fur trade bore a very 
important part, and no history of the conflict between English and hrench interests 
would be complete without at least an outline of the rivalry between the ** Gentle- 
men Adventurers of England " and the North West Company. 

" The Gentlemen Adventurers of England " were incorporated in 1 667 and 
three years later were chartered as the Hudson Bay Company, Prince Rupert 
being among the notable charter members. 

It is curious to note that the founder and most active agent of this company 
was a Frenchman, Pierre Esprit Radisson, whose apparent disloyalty to his own 
country has been explained in recent years by evidence which shows that he was 
the tool of Louis XIV, in what that monarch was pleased to regard as statecraft. 
At all events, he served both nations and was rewarded by neither, although his 
career is as full of romantic interest as he was himself full of indomitable courage. 

The claims of the Hudson Bay Company were fiercely disputed by the French 
fur traders, and late in the Eighteenth century the North West Company was 
organized to resist the encroachments of the English. After many years of bloody 
warfare the two companies united in 1 82 1 under the name of the Hudson Bay 
Company and continued an organization which has been aptly described as the latest 
survival of feudalism. 

We must now turn to another part of the continent in order to realize how 
England and France were the chief claimants for sovereignty in the North Ameri- 
can continent. 

The colonization of the lower Mississippi was begun by the French in 1 699, 
New Orleans being founded in 1718. Working northward from these points, 
the French established military posts on the Great Lakes, as well as on the Wabash 
and Illinois rivers. In 1 749 they crossed Lake Erie and built their forts on the 
Alleghany river. This invasion of the English settlements resulted, as is well 
known, in the French and English wars, which extended from the western borders 
to the shores of Lake Champlain, and ended in the capture of Quebec and 
Montreal. When we consider that in addition to Canada, France once claimed 
all of the United States west of the Mississippi, and that the purchase of the 
greater part of this from the French government was not effected until 1 803, it 
may be sufficiently clear that the claim of France's sovereignty in what is now the 
United States was as extensive and as persistent as that of England. 

I have no time to enter into a discussion of the reason which led to the loss of 
Canada to the French, or the loss of the American colonies to England. In both 
cases the blindness of the home governments and the greed of their representatives 
in this country co-operated to bring about the revolt of a liberty loving people, and 
the rejection of a feudal system which had been already repudiated in its home. 



1 1 2 State of New York 



The result has been that, on the American side a repubUc has grown up, repre- 
senting the best Enghsh traditions of personal freedom and constitutional govern- 
ment. On the Canadian side we see to-day a union of English and French in a 
great dominion in which the one-time rivals are united in developing the resources 
of a country whose future no one may venture to forecast. The question is some- 
times asked, " Will the United States and Canada ever become one nation? " I 
feel that the question is as idle as it is impertinent. There is no ground for believ- 
ing that either party is seriously desirous of such a union. As neighbors we may 
expect friendly rivalry along the lines of hereditary enterprise, but union is as 
improbable as war between Canada and the United States. Our interests are 
mutual, and we may rest content with mutual efforts to develop our resources and 
to learn from each other lessons of industry and patriotism. 

The religious side of our subject is by no means the least interesting, and I am 
sure that no one who is familiar with the history of the past three hundred years 
can fail to note how deeply the religious element entered into all the events which 
I have attempted to sketch. 

If the French fur traders performed marvels of physical endurance in penetrat- 
ing the northern wilderness, the heroic Jesuits were not infrequently found in 
advance of them, being driven by their fearless zeal. If the New Englanders, 
and the Dutch and the English were men of thrift and industry, they were also 
men of deep religious faith and principle. Religion has played an important part 
in the history of this nation, and I believe that in the years to come America will 
contribute largely to the establishment and growth of God's kingdom on earth. 
More than this, I am confident that in this land of many converging nations, we 
may hope to see the working out of God's purposed unity for all who believe in 
Him. 

I have tried to show that England and France were the two chief claimants 
for political control in this country. It may not be beside the mark to note that 
there is a religious spirit common to the English and French v/hich may be expected 
to have its effect upon the future of Christianity in this land and in the world. 

Both England and France are Catholic countries. I hope that I do not need 
to define that word Catholic nor to apologize for using it in the sense in which it 
has been recited for many centuries in the two great forms of the Christian creed. 
Both France and England are Catholic countries. They have always shown their 
belief in and reverence for a church which is of Divine institution and which has 
preserved its continuity with the church of apostolic days. But while holding 
firmly to the idea of a historic Catholic church, both England and France have 
persistently withstood invasions of their national rights by the spiritual head of the 
church in another country. 




PROF. JOHN ERSKINE 



PERCY MAC KAYE 



The Champlain Tercentenary 113 



England's claim to be a free national branch of the Catholic church began 
before Magna Charta, and won its complete recognition in 1532. Parallel to the 
English claim is that of France. The Gallican liberties were recognized by Pope 
Alexander IV, when in deference to the wishes of Louis IX he acknowledged in 
1260 that royal officers must enforce the laws of France even against the clergy. 
In 1 269 the Pragmatic Sanction provided against any exaction of money by a 
Roman court when opposed by the King and the Church of France. The same 
spirit of resistance to foreign invasion will be noted in the reign of Philip of Valois, 
and, in our own time, there has been an uprising of the old Gallican spirit which 
has sometimes slumbered but which will never die. 

In this parallel of English and French Church history, I find a suggestion of the 
end toward which we may hope to work in this country. We desire to see a 
House of God for many nations, a truly American Catholic Church. Catholic in 
its faith and order and sacraments, and Catholic in its spirit of love and social 
service. A church which shall preserve its organic unity with the Church of all 
the ages, but a Church which shall maintain also the primitive principles of national 
independence and integrity. 

No one, looking back over the past 300 years of American history, ought to 
belittle the services rendered to American Christianity by all those who have con- 
tributed to the religious life of this nation. Least of all, perhaps, as we com- 
memorate the life and work of Samuel Champlain, ought we to begrudge the 
honor due to the Roman Catholic Church for its past and present services to the 
American people. We may enter into their joy to-day without envy and without 
any memory of controversies. With them, we plead for a Church Ideal in 
America which shall stand for all that is Holy, Catholic and Apostolic — a church 
in which French and English and all nations shall find their most highly prized 
traditions, and in which they may labor together for one country and for one God. 



III. MONDAY. JULY 5: AT CROWN POINT FORTS 

115 



III. MONDAY, JULY 5: AT CROWN POINT FORTS 

THE POPULAR CELEBRATION of the Champlain anniversary began on 
Monday, July 5th, and the first gathering place, both of residents 
of the valley and of those who had come from a distance, was at 
Crown Point. It would be hard to find in all America a more impressive 
meeting place, especially for exercises of an historical character. On the 
parade ground of old Fort Amherst flags were unfurled and addresses 
were given in a rude but lovely amphitheater, surrounded by massive ruins 
of a construction said to have cost the British Crown more than two million 
pounds. 

On the Sunday afternoon before, the replica of Champlain's pioneer 
ship, the little Don de Dieu, had come up the lake, humbly in tow behind 
a tug, and was now gaily flying the colors of France at her anchorage off 
Crown Point. 

Following the sham battle in the morning and the noon interval for 
lunch, at I :30 P. M., a salute from the guns of the United States naval 
flotilla announced the arrival of the Governors of New York and Ver- 
mont. The spectacle of the Indian pageants, described in previous pages, 
engaged the attention of the throng for an hour; and at 3 o'clock an 
audience numbering many thousands surrounded the speakers* stand on 
the parade ground of Fort Amherst. 

Hon. Walter C. Witherbee, of the New York Commission, a dis- 
tinguished resident of Port Henry and member of the firm which has since 
presented to the State of New York the site and ruins of the Crown Point 
Forts, presided at this opening meeting and presented the speakers, intro- 
ducing the first of them, the Chief Executive of the State of New York, 
in the following words: 

Governor Hughes, Ladies and Cenllemen: We welcome you all to this, the 
first of the formal exercises of the tercentenary celebration of the discovery of 
Lake Champlain amid these historic ruins, whose history is well known to all. We 

117 



1 1 8 State of New York 

are fortunate in having with us the Chief Executive of this State and I take pleasure 
in introducing to you as our first speaker. His Excellency the Honorable Charles 
E. Hughes, Governor of New York. 

Governor Hughes was received by the audience — as he was every- 
where throughout the days of the celebration — with the warmest 
enthusiasm. 

Address of Governor Hughes 

Governor HuGHES — Mr. Chairman, Felloxv Citizens: We begin to-day the 
ceremonies in commemoration of an event of extraordinary significance. Where 
in this fair world can be found a place so richly endowed by daring and by 
exploit and at the same time so favored by Nature? A gateway to a continent, 
waiting through the silent ages for the approach of the intrepid voyager, soldier 
and colonist; an avenue of conflict — a scene of contest in which Algonquin and 
Iroquois contended for supremacy, of fierce rivalries of Old World powers, seek- 
ing to extend the domains of monarchy, of determined struggle for independence, 
that a new Nation might be born and bless humanity with institutions devoted to 
the maintenance of civil and religious liberty. 

Three nations join to-day in common recognition of the sons who here dis- 
played valor and heroism worthy of the highest standards of each. Without taunt 
or bitterness, without vain regret for the inevitable, without the suspicions of ill-will 
or the boastings of ill-natured rivalry, we retrace the paths of early strife. 

Here Frenchman, Englishman and American may find their heroes; and in 
examples of bravery, of high resolve, and of fearless and unselfish devotion, no 
one of them need yield the palm to others. Champlain and Montcalm, Lord Howe 
and Amherst, Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Israel Putnam, Philip Schuyler and 
Richard Montgomery forever invest this beautiful valley with the charm of heroic 
deeds and chivalric loyalty. 

It is not for me to recount the tale of discovery and war. It is the privilege of 
others to tell the romantic story. The spxjt upon which we stand to-day is more 
intimately associated with later events than with the career of the discoverer whose 
name we chiefly honor in this week of celebration. For more than a century after 
Champlain passed below this point to aid his savage friends in the contest with 
their hated enemies, the Iroquois, no permanent settlement along the borders of 
this lake was effected. It was the scene of warlike expedition, but not until 1 731 
was this strategic point, a key to the control of this great highway of war, fortified. 
Fort St. Frederic was then established by the French, and within a few years was 
made a fortress of first importance. Later, in 1 759, the English commander 



The Champlain Tercentenary 119 



Amherst, at whose approach the French evacuated their fort, undertook the con- 
struction, at a cost of many millions, of new and extensive fortifications — whose 
ruins you now see — which were to ensure the permanency of the British control. 

But these ruins, suggestive as they are of enterprise, of skilful preparation and 
of lavish outlay, are in truth the monument of baffled ambition and of disappointed 
hopes. 

The French, destroying their own work, abandoned their fort to the English. 
Only a few years later, in I 775, the Green Mountain boy, Seth Warner, with 
his little band, took possession without a blow. The next year, retreating from 
Canada, the Americans regarded Crown Point as indefensible, and burying here 
hundreds of their comrades, pushed on in destitution and distress to Ticonderoga. 
It was from Crown Point, later in the year 1776, that Arnold set forth with his 
little fleet to check the designs of the English General Carleton, and in defeat in 
the battle of Valcour Island, won lasting laurels for the American name by his 
military skill and indomitable courage. Hither, by rare strategy, he succeeded in 
returning but not to slay; and Crown Point again came into the possession of the 
British. The next year arrived Burgoyne, with his great army, spreading terror 
and confusion, issuing grandiloquent and insolent proclamation, sweeping with 
resistless force to Fort Edward, holding Crown Point and reducing Ticonderoga, 
only to meet the appalling disaster at Saratoga, where the success of the American 
arms destroyed the basis for British hope of dominion over the colonies and assured 
the final success of the cause of independence. 

Upon this vantage point have stood French and English, each in turn bent 
upon dominating the future of this favored land. 

But destiny would have it otherwise, and among these ruins of ambition were 

laid the foundations of the republic under whose banner we meet to-day, the 

friend both of France and England, in whose blessings the children of both the 

ancient rivals share, whose peaceful progress is a boon to all mankind. 

(Applause.) 

The Honorable Seth Low, of New York, was introduced by Chairman 
Witherbee, and enthusiastically received. He delivered the following 
historical address: 



120 State of New York 



Address of Honorable Seth Low, of New York City, at Crown 
Point. July 5. 1909 

Fdlorv Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen: We are met to-day on this 
memorable spot, where men of many nations have battled in days gone by, 
to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of this beautiful 
and historic lake by Samuel Champlain, and also to celebrate the one 
hundred and thirty-third anniversary of the independence of these United States. 
In the history of the United States, New England has played so important a part 
that we do not always remember that before it was called " New England " that 
territory was known as " New France." Similarly, the landing of the Pilgrims on 
Plymouth Rock in 1 620 has bulked so large before the minds of the American people 
that we are apt to forget that the French had entered the domain of what is now the 
State of New York eleven years before the voyagers of the Ma))floWer estab- 
lished the colony at Plymouth. It is an interesting coincidence that the State and city 
of New York are to celebrate, in this same year, the voyage of Henry Hudson up 
the majestic river which bears his name, which led almost immediately to the settle- 
ment of Nev/ Amsterdam by the Dutch. It is worthy of remark that, while the 
French were the first to enter our State, and while this lake still bears the name of 
its discoverer, the name of " New France " never attached itself permanently to 
New York territory. The Dutch, on the other hand, called the province *' New 
Netherlands " before its borders were strictly defined, and this name it held until 
its cession by the Dutch to England gave to the Province, and afterward to the State, 
its name of New York. The French name did not adhere, while the Dutch name 
did, because to the French this region was only a battle ground, while to the Dutch 
this territory offered the opportunity of permanent settlement. More than once in 
the history of this country the plough has shown itself superior to the sword as 
affording a title to the land. When the Oregon Territory was in dispute between 
the United States and Great Britain, the title ultimately fell to the United States, 
because it was proved that settlers, arriving in wagons upon wheels overland from 
the American Union, were the first to establish homes there by ploughing the soil for 
permanent occupancy. The English claim, on the other hand, rested upon the early 
and undisputed presence of their fur traders in the same region; but, when the dis- 
pute was adjusted, it was recognized that to shoot over a land to gather furs con- 
stitutes a title far less valuable than to make the land yield crops for the support of 
human life. And so Oregon and the State of Washington became parts of the 
United States. 




I 



The Champlain Tercentenary 121 



This celebration carries us back to the France of Henry of Navarre and to the 
England of James I. It also carries us back, upon this continent, to the supremacy 
of the Five Nations of the Iroquois, among the red men of the forest. Crown 
Point has this significance, in the history of all this region, that it was at or near here 
that Champlain, with his Canadian Indian allies of the Huron and Algonquin tribes, 
first met the Iroquois in battle. Up to that dramatic moment the Iroquois had never 
seen firearms, and when, in the course of the fight, Champlain stepped forward, clad 
in armor, and with his arquebuse killed one of the Iroquois chieftains, at a distance, 
the unexpected noise and the surprising effect of the shot carried terror to the hearts 
of the Iroquois. Quickly they abandoned their stockade and fled, and the victory 
was with the allies from the North. But, like many another victory on the field of 
battle, the distant result was far-reaching and unexpected. The Iroquois soon 
became accustomed to firearms and to the use of them; but this first conflict with 
the French, and the defeat which they suffered at their hands, made the powerful 
Iroquois people permanent enemies of the French, in the long struggle which subse- 
quently ensued between France and England and the English Colonies for the 
control of this continent. More than once during this struggle the attitude of the 
Iroquois was decisive, and in instances fatal to the purposes of France. 

It will probably be a surprise to many to be told that it is believed that there are 
as many Indians living to-day, within the borders of the United States, as there were 
when the white men first landed on these shores. I heard General Armstrong, the 
founder of Hampton Institute, make such a statement thirty years ago, and was so 
surprised that I asked him for his authority. He could not sustain his statement by 
direct reference, from the nature of the case; but he told me that he knew that that 
was the opinion of the well-informed. Since then I have met the statement many 
times, and I believe it to be the fact. The history of Canada afl^ords an illustration 
which makes the statement seem not unreasonable. While Champlain's relation to 
the permanent settlement of Canada is so decisive that he is properly called " The 
Father of New France," he was not the first Frenchman to sail up the St. Lawrence. 
Jacques Cartier, in 1535, ascended the St. Lawrence as far as the present city of 
Montreal, and there he found an Indian town with more than a thousand inhabitants, 
called Hochelaga. Sixly-eight years later, when Chr'mplain visited this same spot 
there was no sign whatever of any settlement. The Indians had scattered, and the 
whole region had become unsafe through constant warfare with the Iroquois. In 
other words, the Indians were not permanent settlers. They roamed through the 
woods, establishing their camps, now here and now there, and, as they were engaged 
in almost constant warfare with one another, their numbers could not greatly increase. 
While, therefore, it is certainly the case that the number of Indians east of the 
Mississippi is much smaller than the number who roamed over this territory when the 



22 State of New York 



whites first landed on these shores, the number of Indians who now hve west of the 
Mississippi is beheved to be far greater than it used to be. This is the resuU of the 
early policy of the United States in moving into what was then the Far West, all the 
tribes that had proved themselves to be uncomfortable neighbors in the eastern portion 
of the country. Whatever faults may be charged against our government, in detail, 
in its relation to Indian tribes, it may at least be said that its policy of confining 
Indians to reservations, and thus protecting them from utter destruction, as civilization 
closed in about them, has probably had the effect of keeping their numbers on this 
continent, as a whole, as large as they ever were. We may justly rejoice that, in 
these later days, since it became evident that the Indian problem could no longer be 
solved by the removal of the tribes to more distant places, away from contact with 
the white man, the government has made, and is making, strenuous, and often 
successful, efforts to fit the individual Indian to play a useful part in the white man's 
civilization. Senator Robert L. Owen, from the new State of Oklahoma, is a 
Cherokee Indian, so that in his person the aborigines are now represented in the 
government of the Republic. Here, again, one is led to realize that the bow and 
arrow and the rifle often go down before the plough. In other words, the husband- 
man outlasts the hunter. That, again, is a commentary on the Greek myth of 
Antaeus, the giant whom Hercules overcame only by holding him in the air until 
he had choked him, because every time that Antaeus touched the earth he acquired 
new strength. If you read the commercial forecasts of the present hour, you will 
recognize the same old truth, for it is everywhere declared that the prosperity of our 
country, in the immediate future, depends upon the outcome of this year's harvests. 
The France of Henry IV was a feudal France, and the attempt of France to 
dominate North America involved the attempt to establish in the wilderness the same 
feudal system that had slowly developed out of European conditions during a thou- 
sand years, and that was, even then, on the point of perishing there. The historian 
Parkman has pointed out that New France, in its fall, led to two revolutions — the 
American and the French; and the French Revolution put a definitive end to the 
ancient regime. The change effected in society in Europe and elsewhere, by this 
revolution, was so radical that I have heard a deep student of European history say 
that it is impossible for any modern man to think himself back into the conditions 
that prevailed prior to the French Revolution. If one will bear this in mind, two 
thoughts spring to the front. First, that it is not strange that the attempt to domesti- 
cate the ancient regime of France in the wilds of North America was not successful; 
and, second, that it is the old France and not the republican France of our own day 
that failed. If Parkman be right, it was the failure of the old France in North 
America which helped to precipitate the incoming of the new France in Europe. 
The old France, with all its mistakes, left, nevertheless, on this side of the ocean 



The Champlain Tercentenary 123 



its worthy monuments. You find them in the name of Lake Champlain, in the name 
of the St. Lawrence river, at St. Louis, and in Louisiana; and French names are 
identified with prosperous communities all over this region, not only in Canada, but 
in the United States. 1 hese isolated tokens of early French occupancy are tributes 
to the enterprise, the endurance, and the heroism of the founders of New France, 
and of that intrepid band of discoverers who rested not until they had discovered all 
of the Great Lakes and had traversed the Mississippi from its source to its mouth. 
In the province of Quebec, moreover, one finds still a population that are the lineal 
descendants of the early settlers of New France. They retain by treaty right their 
old laws and their old customs, and they have always been a loyal and useful 
element in the population of Canada. The manufactures of New England bear 
constant testimony to their industry and faithfulness; and the distinguished premier 
of Canada to-day. Sir Wilfred Laurier, is a descendant of that stock. It is literally 
true, therefore, that New France, " being dead, yet speaketh." Indeed, she still 
lives in the names of her founders, and in the persons of their descendants, and con- 
tributes to the life of to-day influences that we would not willingly let die. 

No one can speak of the history of New France without pausing to pay a tribute 
to the Jesuit Fathers, of whom Jogues, Breboeuf, and Lalemant stand out conspicu- 
ously as heroic and noble types. These men left France, inspired by the burning 
desire to convert the Indians of America to Christianity. Breboeuf and these others 
sealed their testimony with their blood, perishing at the hands of the Indians under 
unspeakable tortures; but no privation and no danger led them to quail. French 
Canada to this day is loyal to their memories and to their church. 

Crown Point holds one other relation to the succession of events which, in one 
sense, is hardly less decisive than was that battle near here in which Champlain killed 
the first Iroquois who fell at the hands of the French. For many years the settle- 
ment of the continent proceeded so slowly that the French and the English did not 
come, in this part of the country, into very close touch with each other. In I 904 I 
took part in the dedication of a boulder in memory of Champlain, in recognition of 
his discovery in the year 1 604 of the Island of Mount Desert. Along the coast of 
Maine, which the French early settled, the French and the English came into early 
conflict. The greater numbers of the English in this region gave them quick 
supremacy; but it was nearly a century later before both France and England 
recognized that they were to have a life-and-death struggle for the control of the 
continent. About the middle of the eighteenth century — in 1731 — when this 
idea had been fully grasped, the French Governor of Canada sent the Sieur de la 
Fresniere to occupy Crown Point, which, by its location on Lake Champlain. just 
where the lake narrows almost to a river, is evidently a strategic p>oint of great value, 
and here was built Fort Frederic. The manifest purpose of France thus to hold 



24 State of New York 



this region by force of arms, precipitated the conflict in this part of the continent 
which terminated only with the death of Montcalm and the surrender of Quebec to 
the victorious Wolfe. Ticonderoga, just below us, where the waters of Lake George 
enter into Lake Champlain, was the more frequent battle ground; but it was the 
occupation of Crown Point by the French, at this juncture, which turned the tide of 
battle into this region. I assume that the celebration at Ticonderoga will concern 
itself with the military events which have given to that name its fateful and august 
significance in the history of this continent. I think I am right, however, in saying 
that it was the aggressive move of France in occupying and fortifying Crown Point 
which brought things to a crisis in all this region. 

At the recent celebration in Quebec, it was pointed out that the completeness of 
the victory of England over France for the mastery of this continent, itself made 
possible the American Revolution; for the English Colonies, while they had a mili- 
tary power like France for a neighbor, were not at all likely to set up for them- 
selves. When, however, this danger disappeared, the spirit of independence waxed 
stronger and stronger until it culminated in the American Revolution. It is worth 
while also to point out, in this connection, that precisely as it was the old France, and 
not the France of our day, which failed to make New France permanent, so also it 
was an England that has changed in the interval scarcely less than France has 
changed, which failed to hold its American Colonies. The England of that day 
had not yet learned the lesson that no colonies can be successfully held, as the old 
idea ran, for the purpose of being exploited in the interest of the mother country. 
The effort to do this means a challenge, whenever the strength to support the chal- 
lenge has been developed; and, while, in a sense, therefore, it may be true that the 
fall of New France deprived England of the Colonies which are now the United 
States, it is also true that, through this loss, England has been able to hold true to 
herself, ever since, the Colony of Canada by granting to Canada a measure of 
independence which the old England denied to the colonies that have become the 
United States. And so England's loss has been, at the same time, England's gain. 
Nor should it be overlooked, on an occasion like this, that we of the United States 
owe to the help of the old France, against whom we contended with England for 
the mastery of this continent, the decisive assistance against England which enabled 
us to maintain successfully our Declaration of Independence. How many and how 
tangled are the threads which make up the pattern of history as one looks back upon 
it after two hundred years! 

In the many military struggles for the control of this region the mastery of Lake 
Champlain has been a decisive factor. When the French controlled the lake the 
English were driven back. When the English controlled the lake the French 
were driven back. When, later, the English controlled the lake, the Ameri- 



The Champlain Tercentenary 125 



cans were driven back; and when the Americans controlled the lake, the English 
were obliged to retire. This is an illustration from inland waters of Admiral 
Mahan's proposition of the decisive influence of sea power in history. Commodore 
Perry's victory on Lake Erie teaches the same lesson; for the victory of the Ameri- 
can fleet on Lake Erie made it necessary for the English to abandon Detroit and 
other points to the west, in order to keep in touch with their base of supplies. And 
so, in turn. Lake Champlain has belonged to France, to England, and to the United 
States; and with its control has gone the control of a large part of the surrounding 
territory. 

The Poet Whittier, in 1876, began his Centennial Poem with these words: 

" O Thou, Who hast in concord furled 
The war-flags of a gathered world." 

It is the happiest feature of this celebration that representatives of France, of 
England, of Canada, and of the United States, and of the Indian aborigines, are 
met here on terms of amity and concord, on this spot where so often in the olden 
days they met as enemies under contending banners. Surely the enduring lesson of 
such a gathering as this is not only that the plough gives a securer title to the land 
than the rifle, but also that '* peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." 
The nations that used to be constantly at war on both sides of the Atlantic are knit 
together now by ties of mutual respect and mutual esteem. Out of this happy 
concord may there continually develop a spirit of good feeling, which more and 
more, as the centuries roll on, shall grow into an all-embracing brotherhood of men. 

The Chairman, Walter C. Witherbee, then happily welcomed back 
to the scenes of his boyhood days, the next speaker, the Honorable Albert 
C. Barnes, of Chicago, Judge of the Superior Court of Cook County, 111., 
who was most cordially received by the audience. He delivered the 
following address on " Old Crown Point " : 



126 State of New York 

OLD CROWN POINT 

Address of Hon. Albert C, Barnes, of Chicago, at Crown Point, July 5, 1909. 

FelloTv Citizens, Ladies and Gentlemen: We meet to celebrate discovery and 
conquest, independence and peace. On a continent discovered only about four 
centuries ago, we meet on a spot known in history for three centuries of that time. 
When Champlain touched these shores it was still the period of exploration. No 
permanent encroachment on the dominion of the savage north of the James had 
been made until his arrival. Daring navigators had for a century skirted the 
coasts here and there, but the continent was in practically undisturbed possession of 
the Indian. Henry Hudson had not yet cruised up the river that bears his name, 
and the landing of the Pilgrims was still over a decade away. When, therefore, 
Champlain paddled up this lake on those quiet July nights, three hundred years 
ago, the white man for the first time caught the vision of this most beautiful valley. 

When we pause to contemplate what has transpired on this continent in the 
intervening years, what has been crowded into even the last half of that period, 
what has been accomplished upon it for science and art, and the political, economic 
and moral progress of mankind, we can hardly think of America as the domain of 
savages only three centuries ago, and may well deem its discovery to have been the 
great force that awoke human genius and energy to the multiplied activities that 
have brought about our modern progress. 

But it is only of the historic place where we so auspiciously meet that I am 
to speak. It is fitting that the ceremonies of this week should be inaugurated here 
on old Crown Point. Other places along the lake present special claims to historic 
interest and distinction. Isle La Motte will be associated with the first actual 
occupancy of its shores; Cumberland Head with brave Macdonough and his 
memorable naval victory in the War of 1812; Plattsburgh with the accompanying 
defeat of the British land forces; Valcour with the intrepid Arnold and the first 
naval engagement of the Revolution; Fort Ticonderoga with Abercromby's dis- 
astrous assault, the death of Lord Howe, and later with the heroic Allen and his 
dramatic demand for its surrender. But Crown Point may justly lay claim to 
direct association with the discoverer of the lake himself and with an event that 
lies back of all these. Before the foundations of Amherst's fort, here before us in 
majestic ruins, were laid; before Fort St. Frederic reared its stern walls on yonder 
bluff; before the military vanguard of civilization had encamped upon these shores, 
over a century before the white man constructed his pioneer hut on its banks, there 
took place here, probably within half a mile from where we are assembled, an 
event that has been well described as one of the cardinal facts of American history. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 127 



It was Champlain's battle with the Iroquois. In the hght of subsequent events no 
fact in the local history of this region stands out in bolder relief, .^d yet the 
site of that battle is the subject of unsettled controversy. 

Born as I was on the opposite shore at Chimney Point, and there reared with 
the traditions and history of this lake for my nursery tales, I cannot forbear saying 
that this occasion ought not to pass without reasserting Crown Point's claim to this 
historic distinction and harking back to the only authentic source of information 
UfKin the subject. 

In giving events as they occurred while on his voyage, Champlain in his narrative 
tells of reaching a certain part of the lake from which he beheld mountains to the 
east and south, the former unquestionably the Green mountains, and the latter some 
spur of the Adirondacks, running toward the lake. This was at least two or three 
days before he reached the place of battle, and from where he could see no hills 
to the south except those on Lake Champlain. He proceeds to state what his 
Indian companions told him of the latter mountains, of the lake beyond them, 
and of the necessity of passing a rapid to reach it, evidently referring to Lake 
George and the falls in its outlet. At this point of the narrative, following the 
word ** rapid " is injected the dubious and ambiguous phrase " which I afterwards 
saw," It is principally from connecting this phrase with the statement that Cham- 
plain pursued the Iroquois into the forest after the battle that some writers, deeming 
it conclusive that he saw the rapid or falls on this voyage, have located the site 
near Ticonderoga. But the phrase is too indefinite and uncertain in both its mean- 
ing and the time to which it refers, and its connection with the circumstance of the 
pursuit too doubtful to support the inference that the battle afterward described in 
his narrative took place at or near Fort Ticonderoga. He began his return a few 
hours later on the same day, stopping for the Indians to feast, dance and gather 
up the spoils of battle. In the pursuit he killed several Indians with his arquebuse. 
But handicapped with his armor and heavy weapon and the necessity of stopping 
to reload it, the pursuit of the fleet-footed Indian with such havoc could not have 
been far from the point of retreat. Manifestly, it was not far from the shore — 
certainly not so far as the Ticonderoga Falls. Under the circumstances we would 
hardly expect him to go so far into the home land of the wily enemy as to incur 
the risk of being cut off with his meagre force from his canoes and only means 
of safety. 

In describing the place of meeting the Iroquois in their canoes, he refers to it 
as " the end of a cape that projects into the lake on the west side." There are 
only two f)oints of land on the " west side " — Crown Point and Willsborough 
Point, that answer such a description, or that we might reasonably expect, on a 
shore of many jutting points, would be designated as a cape by this careful 



128 State of New York 



geographer of the king, evidently mindful of the latter's injunction to bring back a 
truthful report. It is conceded that Willsborough Point is an impossible location. 
The latitude given by Champlain is not exact — " 43 degrees and some minutes." 
But as due allowance must be made for his uncertain instrument of calculation as 
shown by his computations at various other points on his voyages — its markings 
so far varying from the true standard as not to designate accurately any place 
within so short a distance as separates Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the latitude 
given is inconclusive of the question. 

But Champlain has left one striking piece of evidence on the subject — the now 
familiar picture of the battle, which represents him on a shore at the left of the 
Iroquois. 

As stated by others, it is incredible that he would place himself to the south of 
the enemy and thus between them and their own country. If he landed to the 
north of the enemy whence he came, as he naturally would have done to prevent 
being cut off in case of retreat, then to have water west of him, as indicated in the 
drawing, he must necessarily have been on the western shore of the so-called cape. 
Crown Point and Willsborough Point are the only points on the western shore 
of the lake which admit of such a position. If the position was taken on a north 
shore then he was east of the enemy, and again Crown Point is the only cape or 
point which presents a shore for such a situation. 

We have the strongest historic evidence, therefore, that we stand on the same 
soil upon which Champlain himself set foot three hundred years ago; and we may 
safely say that yonder near the northwest corner of this cape " that projects into 
the lake on the west side " is where the Algonquins met the Iroquois ; that near 
there they floated in their canoes awaiting the dawn for the battle ; that either on the 
west or the north side of this cape it was fought; that there those plumed chiefs 
fell before the white man's weapon, and there the report of gunpowder was first 
heard by the Iroquois and woke their undying hatred for the French nation. 

When we consider that the Iroquois carried their implacable hatred for a cen- 
tury and a half and became powerful allies of the English in the war that stripped 
France of her American possessions, and that largely through their hostility then 
provoked this land passed under the dominion of the new Saxon instead of the 
new Gaul, we are forced to realize that we stand near the spot of an event which 
exerted a conspicuous influence in shaping the destiny of a new world. Little 
could Champlain have foreseen that his participation in that apparently insignificant 
battle would perpetuate a hatred against his nation that a century and a half later 
would operate to drive it from American soil. Little did he know that on the very 
spot where his clumsy arquebuse wrought that fatal victory would be the border line 
of contest for the mastery of the continent. Little could he have divined that here 



The Champlain Tercentenary 129 



in quick succession of events his nation would stand against her inveterate foe only 
to retreat and surrender at last her continental possessions, and that the victor in 
turn would be compelled to relinquish its grasp to the sons of liberty and the makers 
of a new nation. But if he could not look forward to us, we, who have become 
the beneficiaries of his discovery and intervening events, may fittingly look back 
to him and them. 

Here then, of all places on this lake, where he gave it his illustrious name, 
should be erected a monument to the memory of this great explorer, who more than 
any other of his time was actuated by a worthy zeal for state and religion. 

Another century had passed before Crown Point again loomed up in history. 
The French were extending their outposts southward and the English were advanc- 
ing theirs northward. The " door of the country," as the Indian called the lake, 
was again opened by the French; and it is here again the Frenchman made his 
landing and in the erection of Fort St. Frederic in 1731 established his seat of 
power on the lake. Yonder are its ruins, a heap of stone and earth, made more 
complete with the ravages of time, but left as such by the French when deserted 
for a last stand on the heights of Quebec. 

The lines of its ramparts are still discernible. On that little bluff where its walls 
rose straight from the shore we may take our stand and in retrospect contemplate 
in its erection the assertion of French sovereignty and the challenge of English 
pretension. There we may readily call the names of the illustrious dead connected 
with its history; of Beauharnois, who selected this strategic position and named it 
after the French secretary of state; of Dieskau, who later strengthened its fortifi- 
cations and moved his forces on to the bloody encounters with Williams and 
Lyman between Fort Edward and Lake George; of Montcalm, who occupied it 
with the soldiery of France and moved on to old Carillon; of Abercromby, who 
made a fatal attempt to reach it; of Sir William Johnson, who made his fruitless 
expedition against it; of Bourlamaque, who on his flight to the north stopped to 
sigh over its departing glory and left it in flames and ruins; of Rogers, who 
approached with his rangers to grasp the prize and found it a devastation; and of 
Amherst, who later followed on to erect a new fort and from it moved on to the 
walls of Montreal and victory. 

The high tower stored with cannon, the little church where assembled for mass 
the soldiers and the inhabitants of the little settlements about a half mile to the 
southwest and across the lake on Chimney Point; the thick walls of limestone 
quarried back from the shore, all have crumbled into dust or disappeared beneath 
the sod. Time has closed the covered way to the lake, open even in my father's 
boyhood, and removed all signs of the mighty trench that encircled it. No trace 
is left of the old windmill constructed to serve as a redoubt on a point to the east. 
10 



130 State of New York 



A few flagstones till recently showed where the villagers trod, and all that remains 
of the chimneys that long marked the vanished settlement on the opposite point, is 
the name they gave it. 

As we draw the picture of the past on this lonely spot where now graze the 
flocks of the peaceable farmer, while we feel a touch of sympathy for the nation 
that seemingly earned dominion by methods and with motives that entitled her 
claims to fairest consideration, we cannot but rejoice that the grandeur and the 
cruelty of military conquest have given way to the peaceful scene of the twentieth 
century. 

While the tide of warfare had surged up and down the lake with many preda- 
tory and sanguinary excursions directed against both French and English frontiers 
and many movements of armies up and down this shore, and while this, the most 
strategic location south of Quebec, became the seat of French power on the lake 
and the objective point of English campaigns, yet the battles of that period were 
fought elsewhere, and just a century and a half ago the French left it in ruins 
and forever. 

Then began the third stage of Crown Point's history — possession by the 
English and the erection of Amherst's fort at the enormous cost of two million 
pounds sterling. It rises before us in splendid ruins, a forceful reminder not only 
of English conquest but of English defeat. Here we may contemplate other 
scenes. England has strengthened her frontier. The French have ceded their 
possessions in America. The shot has been fired that was " heard round the 
world." England is in a fight to maintain her colonial possessions. The seeds of 
English institutions have taken root in America. Independence has been given a 
motive and soon will be a fact. We may now stand on the ramparts of old 
Amherst and call another roll. 

Let us hope that the spirits of the mighty heroes who once stood within those 
walls, muster before us as we call their names in the order in which history assigns 
them to its moving events. 

Seth Warner, who with a band of Green Mountain boys made its first and 
bloodless capture; Remember Baker, who with another band quickly joined the 
forces here; Ethan Allen, who fresh from the laurels of Ticonderoga started from 
here on that rash expedition against Montreal and into British chains; Richard 
Montgomery, who embarked from here for victory at St. Johns and Montreal and 
heroic death at Quebec; Benedict Arnold, who set out from here with his 
improvised fleets and returned here from those famous naval engagements; John 
Trumbull, who looked with pity on the sick and emaciated troops brought back 
here by Arnold from that disastrous Canadian campaign to suffering and for- 
gotten graves; Carleton, who sweeping after Arnold held it for a short time only 



The Champlain Tercentenary 131 



to retreat again; Gates, to whom its command was assigned with Ticonderoga 
before Burgoyne came up the lake scattering terror along its shores; and Burgoync, 
last to make mihtary use of it, when his reduced army returned from Saratoga and 
defeat. What names, many of these, with which to conjure the spirit of freedom. 
They cannot answer. But I think I catch a response to some of those names in 
the hearts of their grateful countrymen. The story of many of their exploits were 
first told within those walls, and to-day they give back the story. They tell of 
soldier and savage, of the bitter contest between two civilizations for control of a 
continent, and of the struggle for the independence whose one hundred and thirty- 
third anniversary we celebrate to-day beneath them. It is fitting that this old 
fort should then have passed out of history, and this occasion ought not to go by 
without the suggestion that a grateful people should protect from further ruin this 
best preserved relic of the " times that stirred men's souls." True, it witnessed no 
battle, but more than once in the great struggle invading forces compelled its 
exchange of sovereignty. 

It is a perishable heritage of an age gone by, but the principles it was employed 
to establish will endure forever. It sheltered many a hero of that last great struggle 
of which it remains an inspiring monument; and we who enjoy the fruits of their 
valorous deeds should see to it that it shall continue to carry on their lessons to 
future generations. 

The tomahawk has been buried, the old musket stored as a relic, and the sword 
beaten into the ploughshare. The forest has been supplanted by the farm and the 
only fleets on the quiet waters of the lake are those of commerce and pleasure. 
The warrior has gone and peace and freedom have come, but not without tremen- 
dous struggles the history of which cannot well be written and leave out Crown 
Point. 

As we take a parting glance at these ruins, consecrated to the memories we 
here invoke, as the panorama of events that have passed in front of this spot for 
three centuries slip back into history, we cannot but be grateful that the " door of 
the country" has seemingly forever closed to warfare; that the savage visits us 
in the garb of civilization, that Gaul and Saxon are in amity and peace, and out 
of all that was fierce and barbarous, grand and pathetic, has risen a nation that 
offers a home to the descendants of all who then met in conflict with the assurance 
of the fullest liberty and opportunity enjoyed by man anywhere on the face of 
earth. 



32 State of New York 



The next feature of the programme was the following poem by Clinton 
Scollard : 

SONG FOR THE TERCENTENARY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

Poem by Clinton Scollard. 
(Copyrighted by the Author and reprinted by his special permission.) 

Midsummer — and the world a full-blown flower. 

This wide new world as virgin as its sod; 
As wondrous seemed it that unfolding hour 

As did the blossoms upon Aaron's rod! 

That distant hour when first his falcon eyes 
Gazed on this far out-rolling inland main, — • 

A flawless jewel under flawless skies, — 

The knightly-hearted, valorous De Champlain. 

No man of pomp, no silken courtier he, 

No selfish grasper after Glory's star. 
But one who wore undimmed the fleur de Us 

Like his brave patron, Henry of Navarre! 

Bred where Biscay an gales fling up the brine. 

His look was level as a couched lance, 
A valiant son of that intrepid line 

Which gave fair lustre to the fame of France. 

Roland and Bayard! — he was kin to these; 

Swerved he no more than magnet from the pole 
As forth he sailed upon the uncharted seas 

With dreams of high adventure in his soul. 

What foes he faced, what dangers dread he dared, — 

Patient in peace, in war unwavering! 
Unmoved he toiled, unmurmuring he fared. 

Like saintly Louis, the beloved king. 

Since then the Great Recorder of the Days 
Thousands has scrolled upon his golden book. 

Yet still a sheet of shimmering chrysoprase 

The great lake spread for whomsoe'er may look. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 133 



Behind the peaks that panoply the west 
Still burn the sunsets like a mighty forge; 

Still, with its voice of wandering unrest, 

The swift Ausable rushes through its gorge. 

Slope capping slope the awakening east along. 

Vermont's broad ranges show their emerald dye; 
And still, their meadows opulent with song 

And glad with grain, the Hero Islands lie. 

Across the water, as it breaks or broods. 
In twilight purple, or in dawning gold. 

Majestic from their airy altitudes 

Mansfield and White Face signal as of old. 

For howsoe'er man's genius bares or drapes. 

Or cleaves or curbs by frowning height or shore. 

Nature's sequestered elemental shapes 
Preserve their primal grandeur evermore! 

Grandeur and beauty! — here the twain combine. 
Clothing the landscape with a varied veil ; 

And while before our eyes their splendors shine 
Let the grave Muse of History breathe her tale! 

Sea of the Iroquois! This was the path 

Of those swart braves whose story casts a spell. 

Who cut a swath of ruin and of wrath 

Where'er in stealth their vengeful footsteps fell. 

As wise as wary they! Yon shadowy cove 

Once caught the glimmer of their council-flames; 

And yonder, in that dim primeval grove. 
They lurked to gain their sanguinary aims. 

Then came Champlain and gallant Frontenac, 
As daring as the keen conquistador. 

And ever, where they voyaged, upon their track 
Trailed, like a banner, the black smoke of war. 



134 State of New York 



England and France! the vision will not pale; — 
The lilied oriflamme, the double cross; 
' Saint George! " and " Saint Denis! " — adown the gale 
Surge upon surge the cries of conflict toss. 

Ticonderoga felt the bloody brunt. 

And grizzly cannon roared their deafening psalm. 
When Abercrombie flung his fearless front 

Upon the bristling bastions of Montcalm. 

Another thrilling scene that fortress knew 

When, ere the Maytime morning's earliest glow. 

Bold Ethan Allen and his fearless few 

Seized its embattled walls without a blow. 

Still can we hear him; — In the gray Hght see 
The firm-set features of his mountain boys; 
' Up with your firelocks, you who'll follow me! " 
And every soldier held his gun at poise. 

Here Arnold strove, — (alas, the later hour 

That stained a patriot name aforetime pure!) 

Whelmed, yet undaunted, by the foeman's power 
Beneath thy coppiced headlands, green Valcour ! 

With triumph vision, on exultant feet. 

Here passed Burgoyne and his imposing train 

To that grim day of desperate defeat. 
On Saratoga's memorable plain. 

And here Macdonough, prince of sailors he. 
Resting his cause with the Almighty Will, 

Hewed a red path to fame and victory 

While from the shrouds a game-cock clarioned shrill. 

Ah, pageant of the past! the trump, the fife. 

The reeling shock of arms, to-day are banned; 

Down closing vistas fade the stress and strife; 
Now concord reigns, fair Gateway of the Land! 



The Champlain Tercentenary 135 



Three hundred years! How wide a space of time. 
Yet we may cross it on the Bridge of Dream. 

And very real, though none the less sublime. 
Transcendent figures such as Shakespere seem! 

The great are not remote. The statures loom. 
Although they lie in moss-encrusted graves; 

So view we him who, with the year at bloom. 
Here led to battle his Algonquin braves. 

Stanch De Champlain! he of the questing soul 
And the impetuous heart! — ah, who shall say 

If he beheld not back the lustrums roll 
With revelations of our broader day? 

For his we know was the unleashed surmise. 
The lofty impulse, the inspiring thought. 

Yet must we doubt if his presaging eyes 

Divined the wonders that mankind has wrought. 

His fragile shallop — 'tis a steam-sped barque! 

His forest torch — 'tis an electric globe! 
A touch, and lo. an emanating spark 

As surely fatal as was Nessus* robe! 

Speech flies through space as though on spirit wings; 

We dive beneath the sea; we cleave the air; 
Beyond the portal of what unseen things 

May not to-morrow's new explorers fare! 

And yet the old — the dauntless De Champlains! - 
Let us be mindful of the debt we owe! 

A splendid ichor coursed along their veins; 

They quailed nor faltered whatsoe'er the blow! 

Meagre their tools, and starveling were their aids. 
Yet mark the marvel of their fruitful deeds! — 

On verdured banks, in fertile-bosomed glades. 

We reap the harvest where they sowed the seeds. 



136 State of New York 

Then hail them, heroes of an elder hour! 

Death's mandate only bade their struggles cease; 
Still be their memory as a fadeless flower 

As march the centuries toward the Bourne of Peace 1 

During the afternoon, the Tenth Regiment, National Guard, of New 
York, which had been encamped at Crown Point for more than a week, 
was reviewed by Governor Hughes. At evening he and the other guests 
and the Commissioners left for Fort Ticonderoga. Many spectators 
remained to witness the evening performance of the Indian pageants, 
under the direction of L. O. Armstrong, and to see the display of fire- 
works. 



IV. TUESDAY. JULY 6: AT TICONDEROGA 

137 



IV. TUESDAY. JULY 6: AT TICONDEROGA 

ON Tuesday, the scene of the celebration shifted to Ticonderoga. 
Heavy rain in the morning threatened to prove a serious drawback 
to the enjoyment of the day, but by noon the sun appeau-ed and the 
programme was happily carried out as planned. President Taft, the 
French and British Ambassadors, and other distinguished guests arrived 
by special train from the south. Soon after reaching Fort Ticonderoga the 
President and party were met by Commissioner Howland Pell, Captain 
Stephen H. P. Pell and Colonel Robert M. Hiompson, and escorted 
through the ruins of the old stronghold, taking note of the work of 
restoration which had been begun. The President and the other guests 
were reminded alike by the ruined walls and by numerous ancient 
cannon newly set up in the bastions that here was a spot of paramount 
importance in the American annals alike of France and of Great Britain. 
In the fort grounds the visitors viewed with interest the remains of the 
Revenge, a warship of the Revolution sunk just off the Ticonderoga 
shore and raised the preceding winter for preservation in the grounds of 
the restored fort. 

The morning hours had been devoted to a military review and sham 
battle along the old French lines, and at noon to lunch, which was served 
to the principal guests on the steamer Ticonderoga. At one o'clock the 
literary exercises of the day were held, the speakers occupying a grand 
stand in the grounds of the fort. President Taft and party throughout 
the day were the especial guests of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen H. P. Pell 
and of Mrs. Pell's father. Col. Robert M. Thompson. After the day's 
exercises, the President and party were taken by steamer to Port Henry 
and thence by a special train to Plattsburgh. 

At Ticonderoga village, on this day, was held a local celebration with 
many interesting Franco-American features. At an early hour, high 
mass was celebrated at St. Peter's Catholic Church. In the afternoon 

139 



140 State of New York 

there was a procession including floats representing scenes in the Hfe of 
Champlain and in the local history. The day before a reproduction of 
the cross which had been set up by Montcalm on July 9, I 758, to cele- 
brate his victory over the British general, Abercromby, had been raised 
by the Ticonderoga Historical Society with impressive ceremonies. 

The French and British Ambassadors found the region of Fort Ticon- 
deroga of extraordinary interest, so rich is it in associations and reminders 
of the early American campaigns of both nations. Here in 1 755 was 
first erected the French fortress of Carillon, one of the chief strongholds 
of France in America ; here, in July, 1 758, Montcalm's four thousand 
Frenchmen defeated Abercromby's troops numbering fifteen thousand; 
here a year later General Amherst captured the fort and caused the 
French to retire even to Quebec. From that year of 1 759 the restored 
and reconstructed fort has borne the name of Ticonderoga. Then, in 
the years of the American Revolution, came the episode of its capture 
by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, and finally, in July, 
1 111 , Burgoyne*s successful investment of it, his fortification of Mount 
Defiance and the evacuation of the fortification and its defenses. These 
and other episodes were constantly recalled and formed the theme for 
patriotic reminiscences and discussion throughout the day. 

At the formal literary exercises Senator Henry W. Hill presided and 
in introducing the speakers of the afternoon made the following remarks : 

Introduction by Senator Henry W. Hill 

Governor HuGHES, Governor ProuTY, Members of the Legislature of the 
State of Nero York, Members of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commissions, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: We are met in one of the most historic places of the 
Champlain valley, as well as of America, to participate in the celebration exercises 
of the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel 
Champlain, in the month of July, 1 609. His Excellency the Governor of Nevyr 
York, His Excellency the Governor of Vermont, the Legislature of New York, 
the Champlain Tercentenary Commissions of New York and Vermont, and many 
other distinguished citizens of the two States and of the Nation, soon to be honored 
by the presence of the President of the United States, the French Ambassador, the 
British Ambassador, and other distinguished guests from foreign countries, are in 



The Champlain Tercentenary 141 



attendance and constitute the most distinguished civic assemblage ever convened in 
this beautiful valley, enriched as it is by historic associations of colonial, national 
and international events of vital importance in shaping the sovereignty of this 
entire territory, and the policy and character of American institutions. Through 
this valley surged the tides of war and travel for more than 200 years, until every 
prominent point and important island in this picturesque lake were marked by some 
notable event worthy of historic mention. Its romantic Indian names " Peta-wa- 
bouque," meaning " alternate land and water," and " Caniaderi-guarunte," meaning 
" gateway of the country," together with its French name " Mer des Iroquois," 
reveal its historic significance — 

" When first the pale- face from the distant sea 
Brought hither conquering cross and fleur-de-lis." 

This celebration will commemorate the discovery of this beautiful lake, as well 
as many of the important events occuring in the Champlain valley. 

The most important of these cluster about Ticonderoga, the stronghold of three 
successive sovereign nations — now happily in friendly accord — whose military 
leaders here achieved imperishable fame. In and about this impregnable fortress, 
whose ruins we visit to-day, and which are being rebuilt by the Pcll family, in 
whom the title thereto has been held most of the time since the Revolution, the 
" flower of contending armies " struggled for supremacy and the control of this 
** Gateway of the Country." The memories awakened by these associations can- 
not fail to arouse in us patriotic impulses and be an inspiration to generations yet 
unborn. 

The historic achievement of Arnold at Valcour electrified the Continental Con- 
gress; and the triumphant victory of Macdonough in Cumberland Bay thrilled 
the hearts of the people of this growing and now " noble and puissant " nation 
with genuine patriotic motives, and made Lake Champlain famous in two great 
wars for the sovereign control of the territory now comprising the United States. 

Its picturesqueness has been the theme of poets for many generations, who have 
likened its beautiful bays unto that of Baiae, its shimmering waters unto those of 
Como and its mountain scenery and beautiful islands unto those of Maggiore. Its 
many historic places and beautiful scenery will be visited during this celebration 
by thousands of the people of this and other countries, and happy are we, the rep- 
resentatives of the State of New York, in formally participating in the exercises in 
commemoration of the discovery of the one lake, which Samuel Champlain, fresh 
from the Court of Henry IV, singled out as worthy to bear his name. 

I now have the pleasure and the honor of presenting His Excellency, Charles 
Evans Hughes, the Governor of New York, who will address you. (Applause.) 



142 State of New York 

Governor Hughes was greeted with the heartiest applause, long con- 
tinued. He spoke as follows: 

Governor Hughes at Ticonderoga 

Mr. Chairman, Governor ProutY, Gentlemen of the Legislature, Felloiv Citi- 
zens: You are to have the pleasure of listening this afternoon to one of America's 
foremost writers and orators, who, with the charm of felicitous expression, will tell 
you the story of Lake Champlain, We also are honored by the visit to this State, 
in connection with these ceremonies, of the distinguished Governor of Vermont 
(applause), who will briefly address you. Later we shall forget for the moment 
our feelings of intense pride in the respective commonwealths of New York and 
Vermont, while we welcome to this historic scene the man who represents the 
entire people of this favored country, the President of the United States. 
(Applause.) 

It is not for me to detain you with any formal address, or to attempt in the few 
moments in which I shall speak any adequate statement of the interest which thrills 
us all to-day. This is the place of romance, this is the scene of conflict, a spot 
dear to every intelligent American. We are not a cynical people; we are not 
controlled by materialistic impulses. On the contrary, every American is filled with 
delight, as he reads the story of the procession of great events which culminated in 
the foundation of the Republic, which, above all things material, we love because 
of the ideals that it represents. Every school boy to-day is taking fresh interest 
in his study of American history because of the narrative of the exploits that this 
lake has seen. And throughout the breadth and length of the States which border 
this scene of conflict, this lake of charm and poetry, there will be in all citizens a 
new interest in our great country, new inspiration for the ordeals and tasks of 
ordinary life, new determination that we may be worthy descendants of those who 
here finally conquered and here laid the foundations of the nation. 

What events have happened here! There is no place on this continent so full 
of interest, both in legend and in fact that is stronger than fiction — in history that 
has a charm about it that no story can rival. We are interested first in the dis- 
covery of this lake by the white man. Nothing to me has ever seemed so wonder- 
ful as this great land, waiting age after age while thrones were being established 
only to fall, and dynasties were succeeding each other in the Old World. Here 
was this vast continent silent, alone, unknown, peopled by savages, filled with riches, 
waiting with its benediction for the most favored of mankind. The thought of 
the discoverer, coming for the first time through Lake Champlain, is one which in 
interest and in the suggestion of romance cannot be equalled in any of the retro- 



The Champlain Tercentenary 143 



spections of history. But we pass quickly beyond the discovery, for that was 
interesting only as a prelude — only because of the significance we attach to the 
opening of this gateway to a new world ; we go beyond the discovery to the rivalries 
of the nations. We see New France contesting for pre-eminence, we see England 
asserting its authority and establishing works which it deemed would secure to it 
the permanent control of this great country, and the thought to us all as Americans 
is that the crowning achievement was the conclusive victory of the Colonial Army, 
and the fact that after a long period of conflict we were ushered into the peace 
of independence and freedom. (Applause.) 

But in a moment, important as are these events marking epochs in the world's 
history, marking the transfer of national power over a large portion of the New 
World — yet so idealistic are we, so interested are we in humanity, so intense is our 
interest in the revelation of the fine qualities of manhood — we forget the mere event 
of the discovery itself, we pass by the mere stories of battles and the tales of national 
struggle, we even pass by the mere fact of the assertion of independence and the 
achievement of victory for the cause of the Colonies, in our thought of the men, the 
splendid specimens of France and of England and of the New World, the scene 
of whose finest exploits is this historic spot. We forget the discovery in the discov- 
erer, and we honor to-day not simply a man who, by virtue of his being the first 
to come here has had his name linked with this lake of transcendent beauty, but 
one of the finest representatives of the Old World, and we pay tribute to the mem- 
ory of Samuel Champlain, because of his personal bravery and strength of 
character. (Applause.) There was a man of the Old World whom the children 
of the New World might well copy. There was a soldier, who after the stress of 
his campaigns did not wish for the idleness of Paris or the pleasures of the French 
Court. For him the world was a world for heroic deeds, and the only man who was 
fortunate was the man who could take part in some momentous action. He felt 
within him the capacity to do something worth while in a world where much was to 
be done, and he took advantage of the favor of his sovereign only to give himself 
the chance to court the dangers of his repeated expeditions. 

There are four men whose names and memories are associated with this spot, 
and each one of the four was an honor to his race, a man who may well serve a^ 
a pattern for the men of all nations. (Applause.) 

I have spoken of Champlain. Now let us go forward 1 50 years. We are 
to-day celebrating the 300th anniversary of the discovery of Champlain. The 
days of the French occupation and of the establishment of Fort Carillon seem 
far remote, but they were as far in advance of the day of Champlain's first visit 
as they are remote from us. marking the half-way house in the path of historical 
development. Champlain, 1609, Fort Carillon, 1755. And here again France 



144 State of New York 



sent one of the noblest of its souls. How we love to find in the warrior the man of 
gentleness and sympathy, the man of kindly heart and generous disposition! How 
easily the horrors of war are forgotten because there have been revealed in the 
midst of them the nobility of true greatness. Such was Montcalm. (Applause.) 
Descendants of the English who fought him meet to-day with the descendants of 
the French who followed him, and with us, as men of America knowing no dis- 
tinction of race, honor Montcalm, who held these heights to the disaster of the great 
British Army, only finally to learn in Canada that the victorious General Amherst 
had secured control. A man, devoted to his wife and children, embracing the 
opportunities of the New World because of his loyalty to his nation and its sov- 
ereigns, a pure-minded man, one who worked as a common soldier here in the 
trenches at Ticonderoga, inspiring his troops with his devotion and his courage, a 
man whose memory is not the exclusive possession of his nation but is the pride 
of humanity itself. 

And then there was Lord Howe, who did not reach this spot — as fine a speci- 
men of the English race as ever visited this soil — as Wolfe said, " the best soldier 
in the British Army," a man, like Montcalm, of pure character and honorable 
purpose. He fell in the surprise in the woods, having lost his way, but he has 
given sanctity to the spot which he sought to reach and to this place with which his 
name has been identified. 

But America has not failed to achieve a place in the honorable roll of those 
who have dignified this height with their exploits and their deeds of courage. We 
have Ethan Allen. (Great applause.) 

And the only victory ever won on this spot that really meant something perma- 
nent was won by Ethan Allen. (Applause.) The French had a wonderful 
victory, and Montcalm in triumph set up the cross ascribing it to Providence. 
Amherst thought he had come to stay, and in their pride of occupancy the British 
left a little garrison to be surprised and in humiliation to surrender and thus to 
permit the Continental Congress, almost ante-natally favored by the *' Great 
Jehovah," to establish its colors here. (Laughter and applause.) 

And with Ethan Allen were the rest of the Green Mountain Boys. The 
Governor of Vermont will become eloquent about this in a moment. The New 
Yorkers and Vermonters worked together here, and they are always to be together 
hereafter. (Applause.) New York is not to be outdone in the praise of the 
Green Mountain Boys who took this fortress for the Colonies, and, although it 
was destine>d to fall again into the hands of the British, it was only for a short 
time. The victory of Ethan Allen and the surrender of the British commander, 
under the most abject conditions under which a commander ever surrendered, was 
significant only because of the indomitable spirit of the Americans which Allen 



The Champlain Tercentenary 145 



incarnated. Whether it was at Ticonderoga or at Oriskany or at Saratoga or at 
Yorktown, they were unconquerable, and to the intelligent onlooker of his time 
the exploit in the capture of Ticonderoga was prophetic because of its revelation 
of the spirit of the Revolution, which has been transmitted through the generations 
until in these opening years of the Twentieth century there is no one to decry or 
contest our power or influence for good, and no one in the world but wishes well 
for the American people. (Applause.) 

The State ought to have restored these ruins, but we are proud of the patriotism 
that has undertaken the restoration. (Applause.) We are glad that they are 
being safe-guarded. Now let us all, coming to this spot of story, of defeat, of 
victory — distinguished by the best and bravest of the Old World and of the 
New — reconsecrate ourselves to the cause of human freedom, knowing that only 
in our individual lives and in our seemingly slender opportunities can we really make 
secure that for which our fathers fought. (Applause.) 

Senator Hill then introduced the Governor of Vermont. "Across 
yon beautiful lake," he said, " lies the State of Vermont, which con- 
ceived the idea of the celebration of the discovery of Lake Champlain. 
From the day that project was first considered, it has had the endorsement 
of the Governors of that State and we are fortunate to-day in having with 
us His Excellency, George H. Prouty, Governor of Vermont, whom I 
now present as the next speaker." (Applause.) 

GoN'ERNOR Prouty at Ticonderoga. 
Governor Prouty spoke as follows: 

Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency, Members of the New York Legislature, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: I can assure you that with a few exceptions I am 
extremely glad to be here. I have tested the soil of New York; I know it sticks; 
I shall carry it away with me when I go (laughter), and I shall also carry away 
with me the pleasure of seeing this great convocation here to-day. It is indeed 
a great pleasure for a Governor of Vermont to come here to this historic spot, 
because, if I remember correctly, there was another Vermonter that came here one 
lime, and, as Governor Hughes has said, accomplished something. He was sent 
here by the Great Jehovah and the Legislature of Vermont. (Applause.) 

I give you greeting, ladies and gentlemen. I shall not endeavor to be eloquent 
over the Green Mountain Boys or over any one else in Vermont, but I do want to 
say to you that whatever our feelings may have been in the past for you at some 
11 



146 State of New York 



time, we have nothing but love and good will now. (Applause.) If Vermont 
was fortunate enough to have conceived the idea of this great celebration, she has 
also been fortunate in having such wonderful co-operation from the State of New 
York, because the State of New York in this matter has acted as a big brother 
to the State of Vermont, and the State of Vermont fully appreciates it. 

This is a grand celebration, and a great deal of work and a great deal of money 
has been spent to get up such a celebration as this, and we ought to remember what 
this is and what this means for us. This celebration is not prepared simply for 
pleasure. It is prepared because of the memories which we have of Lake Cham- 
plain, of Samuel Champlain and of all the great heroes who have performed 
deeds of valor in this beautiful valley. If we do not realize this fact, if we do 
not take the lessons of the heroism of those men, we shall not have received the 
benefit from this celebration which we ought to. It is only by remembering these 
things, it is only by remembering the sacrifices which have been made, it is only 
by remembering what Samuel Champlain came here for, that we can get the 
proper benefit from this great celebration, and, therefore, I say to-day for just 
a moment that we should remember that these heroes performed these deeds of 
valor because of their love for country, because they wanted to do something for 
the world, and for mankind, and unless we take these lessons to us, we have failed 
in getting the best from this great celebration. I promised when I came here that 
I wouldn't speak over five minutes. I could not, if I tried, give you an historical 
address or an eloquent one; but I do come here as the Governor of Vermont 
to bring you the greetings of that little State and again tell you that we appreciate 
that whatever may have been in the past, to-day we are simply brothers and fellow 
countrymen; that we live in the same great republic whose representative we shall 
see here in such a short time, and that we simply try to outdo the State of New 
York in our patriotism. My friends, again I say to you, I am glad to be here. 
The mud which I carry away will be sacred to me. (Applause.) 

Chairman Hill — Ladies and Gentlemen: If the Governor of Ver- 
mont carries nothing away but mud he is welcome to it. (Laughter.) 
I hope he will carry some of the inspiration of this great audience away 
with him, and I know he will. We were fortunate, ladies and gentlemen, 
in securing distinguished speakers for our various exercises to be held 
during the entire week. We were particularly gratified that we were to 
have on this occasion, at this historic place, a gentleman who has written 
so well of American scenery, a gentleman who has traveled so exten- 
sively and who has so beautifully described many of the places of the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 147 

Old and New Worlds. We wanted him to come into the Champlain 
valley, so that, henceforth, some such beautiful pictures as he has given 
us of other places may be produced by him with reference to Lake 
Champlain, and we are now to hear from the Associate Editor of the 
Outlook, who will address you — Doctor Hamilton Wright Mabie. 
(Applause.) 

Doctor Hamilton Wright Mabie addressed the assemblage. His 
paper follows: 

THE STORY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

By Hamilton Wright Mabie, 

An address delivered at Fort Ticonderoga on July 6, the three hundredth anniversary of the 
discovery of Lake Champlain. 

The Discovery. 

On the 28th day of June, 1609, Champlain, with a party of eleven Frenchmen, 
armed with the arquebus, accompanied by three hundred and more Indians, set 
sail from Quebec in a fleet of canoes; crossed Lake St. Peter; reached the mouth 
of the river which has borne many names but has finally become the Richelieu; 
after a short stay enlivened by fishing and hunting and by the customary secession 
of three-fourths of his Indian allies, which reduced the party to three Frenchmen 
and sixty Algonquin braves, made his way up the quiet stream in a world of virgin 
foliage; left his canoes where the roar of the rapids broke the silence of the woods 
and the foam of tumultuous waters became visible through the trees, and plunged 
into the wilderness. These daring Frenchmen were of the stuff of which heroes 
are made, in a century which bred men of heroic temper; they were intrepid, 
ardent, and gallant, after the manner of their race. A history of splendid audacity 
on the uncharted Sea of Darkness, as they called the Atlantic, lay behind them; 
a romantic and tragic history of laborious adventure, uncalculating heroism, and 
perils without number lay before them. Behind them were the cliffs of Quebec, 
on which the most picturesque city of the continent was to rise, the mountain on 
whose slope Montreal was to build itself with the solidity of the Old and the bright- 
ness of the New World, and the slope on which Toronto was to gather itself around 
its beautiful park, its Parliament House, and its University; the St. Lawrence, 
majestic among rivers for its volume, its scenery, its magnificent tumult of birth at 
Niagara, and its impressive sweep through a gulf which is like a sea into the 
Atlantic; behind them, too, was half a continent which was to be contended for 
by two races and to become the home of both, united in the building of a great 



148 State of New York 



and powerful empire, English in name and loyally, in energy and power of admin- 
istration, French in tradition, in ancient courtesy of hospitality and the love of life. 

Of this brilliant and stirring future, so impressive to us to-day, Champlain had 
no vision as he re-embarked and was swept along through forests teeming with 
game, past meadows sweet with the odors of the young summer, until the river 
widened into the lake that was to bear his name to the remotest future. Isle a La 
Motte, beautiful in its green expanse and its lovely outlooks, Grande Isle and Long 
Island, lay in his path as he entered the tranquil waters of Champlain. It was a 
landscape of quiet but varied and striking beauty into which this brave French 
gentleman came about July 4, 1 609. Before him the Lake stretched to the south 
and lured the imagination on its own voyage of discovery beyond the farther dip 
of the sky; on his right the Adirondack wilderness was spread out league on league, 
hill rising behind hill to the noble mass and altitude of Marcy and White face; 
to the left the forests climbed to the summit of Mansfield; the shores were indented 
by almost numberless inlets and bays, and the primeval forests came down to the 
water's edge in a long sweep of unbroken foliage. As the little flotilla moved 
southward under the quiet stars, silent as the night itself, they passed Split Rock, 
with the mysterious serpent coiled on its face — a place sacred in the unwritten 
annals of the aborigines, and a symbol of the savage life to which the coming of 
Champlain was the unsuspected approach of doom. To the west the solitude of 
the woods which have since become a priceless Forest of Arden for rest, sport, 
and health was unbroken save by the softly falling tread of moccasined hunters; 
to the south, through the beautiful Mohawk valley, stretched the lodges of the 
Five Nations, the implacable, tireless, war-loving Iroquois, the most daring and 
skillful of Indian fighters, who had been driven from the Champlain valley a 
century and a half earlier by their ancestral enemies, the Algonquins. 

If the gallant French gentleman, high-minded and generous of spirit, whom 
the paddles of Algonquin warriors were bearing swiftly southward could have 
heard the terrible cries that were to haunt those woods in the near future and for 
many a later year, and seen as in a vision the horror of torture and the bitterness 
of death that were to be enacted again and again in places which nature had made 
for temples and homes, he might have turned backward and left the valley to its 
vast solitude and silence. But in the drama of human life, never without its 
monitions of tragedy, and yet moving through storm and blood to a widening peace 
and higher ordering of society, it was ordained that Champlain should be the 
harbinger of war and desolation in the very hour in which he was to grasp the 
crown of the discoverer. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 149 



A Great Figure Appears 

On the evening of the 29th of July, three hundred years ago, as they approached 
the point of land on which Ticonderoga stands, the Algonquins descried the canoes 
of their enemies putting out from the shore, and in a moment the night was a tumult 
of war-cries. The Iroquois, who had no genius for naval strategy, put ashore and 
hastily barricaded themselves in the woods. In the dusk of the summer twilight 
that first scene in the authentic history of Lake Champlain silhouettes itself in 
dusky lines; the Iroquois furiously felling trees and piling the trunks in a rude order; 
the Algonquins dancing in their rockmg boats lashed together near the shore and 
filling the air with shouts of defiance and derision. It was a dramatic moment when 
morning broke, for no European had ever been seen in the wilderness, and the 
dawn was the rising of the curtain on a drama in which four races were to appear; 
a war that was to involve half the world was to be fought, and the destiny of a 
continent decided. 

The Algonquins landed as soon as it was light; the Iroquois, erect as the pines 
about them, vigorous, daring, and vindictive, left the shelter of their barricades and 
moved through the woods with the steadiness of veteran troops, the plumes of their 
chiefs leading the onset. Then, with dramatic quickness, the ranks of the Algon- 
quins opened and Champlain, partly in armor, advanced and stood between them; 
a strange and ominous figure in the eyes of his enemies if they had known it, the 
foe alike of Iroquois and Algonquins; the impersonation of that aggressive force 
of civilization which sweeps the lesser race irresistibly before it as it moves with the 
momentum of a glacier. 

Standing on the edge of the forest, steel on his breast and thighs, a plumed 
casque on his head, a sword at his side, an arquebus in his hand, on that July 
morning eleven years before the landing at Plymouth, two months before Henry 
Hudson discovered the Hudson, Champlain holds the center of the stage, the 
earliest of the men of striking personality who were to appear in this beautiful 
valley; second to none of them in nobility of purpose and greatness of soul; dividing 
with La Salle the pre-eminence of fame among Frenchmen in America. He incar- 
nated in that moment the genius of France, its immense service to America, the 
story of discovery, exploration, adventure, heroism, and sacrifice which it was to 
contribute to the finding and making of the New World. To-day we celebrate 
their dauntless courage, their restless energy, their enthusiasm, which no danger 
could check and no toil exhaust. 

As England sent her great sailors and adventurers from Devonshire, whose 
rocky coasts in the mists of sunset are beautiful as the gates of fairyland, France 
sent her sailors and explorers from the harbors of Normandy and Brittany, where 



150 State of New York 



men of heroic mold gained tempered strength on the high seas. They were a 
gallant company, those daring Frenchmen who sailed up the St. Lawrence, 
crossed the wilderness and the prairie, spread the first sail on the inland lakes, and 
floated down the Mississippi to the Gulf, penetrating to the heart of the continent, 
and leaving behind them in all the localities where they or their successors stayed — 
at Detroit, at St. Louis, at New Orleans, and in small towns — a tradition of 
courtesy and a touch of distinction which have persisted through the centuries. The 
hardy men of Dieppe and Honfleur who were fishing off the coasts of Newfound- 
land four centuries ago; Jacques Cartier, sailing out of the harbor where St. Malo 
still prospers behind her walls and Millet's statue of Chateaubriand looks seaward; 
Jean Nicollet, Joliet, Marquette, Frontenac, Hennepin, Tonty, Bienville, La Salle 
(one of the greatest names in our early history) ; the Jesuit Fathers who kept com- 
pany with hardship and death so many decades — how these great figures stand 
out in the morning light of the New World! 

On that historic morning when he stood between the two bands of Indian 
warriors Champlain was forty-two years old. Born not far from Rochelle, in a 
country which, like Devon, Normandy, and Brittany, was a nursery of sailors, 
Champlain knew the sea from his youth and loved it. A gentleman by birth and 
training, he was brave and hardy, of great strength, calm in danger, resourceful 
and swift in action; strict in discipline, but always just and kind; a Frenchman in 
his blitheness of spirit and a certain inextinguishable gayety which hardship could 
not dim, he was a man to be loved and honored. No more chivalrous and gallant 
figure appears in the New World story. He belongs with the Founders and Build- 
ers, and rightly bears the proud title, the " Father of New France." Parkman 
places his name first among the pioneers of our forests, " It was he who struck 
the deepest and boldest strokes into the heart of their pristine barbarism. * * * 
The preux chevalier, the crusader, the romance-loving explorer, the curious knowl- 
edge-seeking traveler, the practical navigator, all found their share in him. 
* * * His books mark the man — all for his theme and purpose, nothing 
for himself. Crude in style, full of the superficial errors of carelessness and haste, 
rarely diffuse, often brief to a fault, they bear on every page the palpable impress 
of truth." His heart was in the New World. In Paris, he tells us, he walked 
the streets in a dream, recalling the mystery of the deep woods, hearing above the 
tumult of the ancient city the music of trees swaying in the wind, seeing with that 
inward eye which is alike the bliss of solitude and of the squares where mighty 
streams of men converge, the long aisles of the unexplored forest; full, too, of a 
mighty compassion for the Indians, and holding the saving of a soul better worth 
while than the founding of an empire. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 151 



Such was the man who faced the Iroquois, looking at him with startled surprise, 
as at a visitor from another planet, on that fateful July morning. In his quaint but 
graphic style he has described his part in the fight. " I looked at them and they 
looked at me. When I saw them getting ready to shoot their arrows at us, I 
leveled my arquebus, which I had loaded with four balls, and aimed straight on 
one of the three chiefs. The shot brought down two and wounded another. On 
this, our Indians set up such a yelling that one could not have heard a thunder-clap, 
and all the while the arrows flew thick on both sides. The Iroquois were greatly 
astonished and frightened to see two of their men killed so quickly, in spite of the 
arrow-proof armor. As I was reloading, one of my companions fired a shot from 
the woods, which so increased their astonishment that, seeing their chiefs dead, 
they abandoned the field and fled into the depths of the forest." Then followed 
the customary orgies of torture and death, from which Champlain turned with 
loathing and horror, begging his allies to put their victims out of misery by shooting 
them; and so falls the curtain on the first act of the drama of races and nations 
in the Champlain valley. Henceforth the Iroquois were the implacable enemies 
of the French. 

Seeds of Conflict 

The French had inadvertently, perhaps inevitably, taken sides in a struggle 
in which there were from time to time intervals of inaction, but no cessation of 
hostilities. Between the Algonquins and the Iroquois there was a feud antedating 
historic times, born in the geographical conditions in which the two great groups 
found themselves, and in their temperament and history. War was the normal 
occupation, the pastime, the absorbing interest of both groups. In their rudimentary 
political and social conditions it was the one field on which genius, daring, force, 
could find free play; it was an open pathway to fame and power. The English 
colonists at the south and east lived with arms in their hands and in the face of 
constant peril, but they were mainly home-makers, with small thought of wide 
conquests; concerned chiefly vAth getting roofs over their heads and seed in the 
ground. They were fighting here and there as they set their stakes farther and 
farther into the wilderness; but their advance was slow and they were but a thin 
line of pioneers building larger than they knew. The French, on the other hand, 
had great ambitions from the beginning. They were not primarily settlers, home- 
makers, farmers; they were ardent explorers, bent on bringing a new empire under 
French rule, soldiers eager to establish French authority in the farthest confinas 
of the Wilderness; devoted priests whose joy it was to plant the cross in savage 
places and to sing the Mass in savage ears, tireless apostles of a Church whose 
annals they enriched with almost numberless martyrdoms. The English crept 



152 State of New York 



slowly forward as they needed land for their immediate purposes; the French swept, 
few in numbers but dauntless in courage, to the very heart of the continent, inspired 
by great dreams of empire, of the glory of France, of the spread of the faith. 
Inevitably, therefore, they met fierce opposition over a thousand miles of territory 
from an enemy who saw in them a foe to be faced and fought to the death. In 
that long and disorderly warfare Lake Champlain appears and reappears as the 
record touches now one point and now another, now a column moving with shining 
arms through the woods, now a flotilla sweeping across the lake, now a skirmish 
desperately fought; always bands of braves stealing through the trees, alert, 
implacable, tireless. 

War between the rival colonists, divided by race, by faith, by temperament, 
was chronic, as was war between the French and the Iroquois; subsiding for a few 
years, and then breaking out afresh in some local incident or inspired by the inces- 
sant bickerings of the two nations at home. In the dead of winter in 1 690 a 
small army of French and Indians might have been seen moving silently on the 
ice; two weeks later the blazing settlement at Schenectady, like a great torch, 
revealed their destination. In one of these minor struggles, in the intervals between 
the greater and more significant combats, a figure of heroic mold appears in the 
person of Captain John Schuyler, of Albany; a man of intrepid energy and inti- 
mate familiarity with border warfare, the bearer of a name of the highest distinction 
in the history of New York, and the forerunner of one of the purest-minded and 
noblest-hearted leaders of Revolutionary struggle. Within sound of the guns of 
Montreal, this daring soldier avenged the destruction of Schenectady. A year later 
another Schuyler, Philip, passed over the same route which his brother had taken, 
fought a desperate battle with a large force sent out from Montreal, and brought 
his men off in safety after assaulting and capturing Fort La Prairie. In 1 709 a 
considerable force of colonists from New York and New England, with five 
hundred warriors from the lodges of the Five Nations, passed over a road built 
by the State from Albany to the lake, but returned without meeting the French; 
the expedition against Quebec, which was part of the general plan to seize Canada, 
proving equally futile. The importance of the lake as a highway north and south 
was now clearly seen, and both English and French recognized its strategical 
importance; but the French, organized on a military basis, acted first. In 1731 
they built a fort at Crown Point, which was called St. Frederic, the English mean- 
time claiming the title to the territory on both sides the lake. The Governor- 
General of Canada began to issue grants of great sections of land. Isle la Motte 
being included in the first of these gifts to French officials and soldiers. Few of 
these tracts were settled within the time fixed by the grants, and the territory largely 
reverted to the Crown; the modern love of scenery was still in embryo, and the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 153 



social Frenchmen shrank from the isolation of life in the wilderness. New York 
was sluggish of action in those days of loose organization; it had the keys of Can- 
ada in its hands, but allowed the French to intrench themselves on the lake and 
make ready for the decisive struggle for the control of the continent that was fast 
approaching. For two decades Crown Point was a menacing stronghold and the 
base of many irritating forays. 

A Frontier Baron 

The final conflict was preceded by desultory and ineffective attempts by the 
colonists to break or destroy the French power in Canada. In 1 755 a number of 
colonial governors met at Alexandria and planned a campaign against Canada, 
involving expeditions against Crown Point, the fort at Niagara, and Fort Duquesne. 
The leadership of the expedition against Crown Point was assigned to Sir William 
Johnson, and was to be made up of colonists and Indians. The Indians held 
back at first; they found the colonists too Httle occupied with war. "Look at 
the French," they said; "they are men, they are fortifying everywhere." In the 
end they joined forces with the colonists, and in July General Lyman arrived 
with six hundred troops from New England and promptly began building Fort 
Lyman. When Sir William Johnson reached the camp a month later, he found 
himself in command of more than three thousand men. Mr. Norton once said of 
Lowell that in the crisis of the war between the States his voice was worth an army 
corps; Johnson was the equivalent of a division. Intrepid, resourceful, accustomed 
to create conditions instead of conforming to them, flexible in habit, enamored 
of the freedom of frontier life, and daring enough to use it to the full, Johnson 
knew the Indian mind and habit more intimately perhaps than any other man in 
the colonies; and, what was more important, he had the firm friendship and con- 
fidence of the Indians. He lived on the Mohawk on easy terms with life, and 
especially with his Indian neighbors. An Irishman by birth, he was strongly built, 
of a commanding spirit and a jovial temper. His house was a castle and a club; 
it could stand a siege or give hospitality of bed and food and drink to an army 
of friends. Its master was a born host who drank flip with the Dutch settlers and 
Madeira with the royal governors; he could trade with the instinct of a modern 
financier of the advanced school; he could preside at Indian councils and use all 
the devices of Indian oratory, and he had a genius for international marriages. 

Johnson's army was a miscellaneous one; he danced the war dance with his 
Indians; there were good men and true in it, and there were colonists who came 
reluctantly and were eager to be back on their farms; they wore many kinds of 
clothes and carried all sorts of arms. Its morals were variously reported. Park- 
man quotes William Smith, of New York, as saying, " Not a chicken has been 



154 State of New York 



stolen " — a statement unique in the annals of civilized wars. Colonel Ephraim 
Williams, one of the honorable company of American founders of colleges, wrote: 
" We are a wicked, profane army, especially the New York and Rhode Island 
troops. Nothing to be heard among a great part of them but the language of 
Hell. If Crown Point is taken, it will not be for our sakes, but for those good 
people left behind." It ought to be remembered that the language of New York 
has often sounded profane in New England ears, when it was only informally 
picturesque. There were also prayers and sermons and psalm-singing — largely, 
it may be suspected, in the New England camps, though even there one detects signs 
01 our common humanity. "As to rum," writes Colonel Williams, " it won't 
hold out nine weeks; " and he adds these significant words, " Things appear most 
melancholy to me." Things went slowly, as they usually did with colonial armies. 
Johnson managed to dine on venison and cheered his guests with good wine; inci- 
dentally he gave one of the loveliest lakes in America the name it still bears. 

On a day in early September, the French commander, Dieskau, misled by a 
report that the English had retreated, advanced from Ticonderoga to the point 
where Whitehall now stands, left a part of his troops, moved forward along the 
edges of a marsh as far as the head of South Bay, abandoned his canoes, and 
plunged into the forest, about fifteen hundred men in all — regular troops, 
Canadians, and Indians. The following evening they were within three miles of a 
detachment of colonists. Captured drivers of wagons told the French that they 
had been misled and that the English lay in force at the lake. Many Indians 
promptly deserted, but the daring Dieskau pushed forward and met a column of 
English troops. The French regulars were halted on the road, the Canadians 
with the Indians who remained were hidden in the woods. Johnson meantime 
had been informed of Dieskau's movements, and decided to send a thousand men 
in two detachments to *' catch the enemy in their retreat." The protest of the 
Mohawk chief who picked up a stick and easily broke it and then tried in vain to 
break several sticks was heeded, and the detachments were united; but the 
experienced fighter still demurred. "If they are to be killed," he said, " they 
are too many; if they are to fight, they are too few." 

The ambush had been skillfully laid, and when the English advanced the forest 
suddenly broke into a blaze of musket shots. Colonel Williams rode swiftly up a 
little rise of ground, calling his men to follow him, and fell with a bullet through 
his brain; one of those heroic spirits whose mortality finds its witness here as well 
as there, and whose name lives in one of the most beautiful of American colleges. 
Under the terrible enfilading fire of an invisible enemy the colonists recoiled, pressed 
forward in the face of the murderous flame, and then broke in confusion amid the 
yells of the Indians. Colonel Williams was still in the fight in the indomitable 



The Champlain Tercentenary 155 



spirit of his troops, who ralhed, made a brave retreat, and ended " the bloody 
morning scout." An hour after WilHams set out the main camp heard the shouts 
of their retreating comrades, built a hasty barricade with wagons and trunks of 
trees, planted cannon, and made ready for an assault. Fifteen hundred farmers, 
most of whom had never heard a gun fired save in sport, their nerves shaken by 
the catastrophe of the morning, waited the advance of the French regulars march- 
ing down the forest road, war-whoops bursting from the woods, and the Canadians 
and Indians rushing down the wooded hillside. The colonists held their hre until 
their enemies were close at hand, and then swept the white-coaled ranks with grape 
and compelled them to seek the shelter of the trees, and the fight became a furious 
fusillade. For an hour Dieskau drove in succession against Johnson's right, center 
and left, until he was struck by a shot in the leg, and while the wound was being 
dressed was shot again in the knee and thigh. Seated behind a tree, the brave 
Frenchman refused to be moved, and ordered his adjutant to leave him and make 
a final charge against Johnson's position. But the day was lost; the colonists 
rushed from their entrenchments, fell like a whirlwind on the French, and drove 
them in confusion from the field. Dieskau was shot again and was carried to 
Johnson's quarters, where he narrowly escaped being burned and eaten by the 
furious Mohawks. He lived to return to Paris and to tell the story of his adven- 
tures with Gallic fire and effectiveness. 

Johnson failed to follow his victory by a decisive blow; his army was 
re-enforced; the November snows began to fall, the November winds to howl 
through the leafless trees; the men began to desert in squads, and the camp broke 
up. Parkman sums up the campaign in a phrase: *' The Crown Point expedition 
was a failure disguised under an incidental success." Johnson had changed the 
name of Lake George, and transformed Fort Lyman into Fort Edward; he had 
built Fort William Henry, and he had withstood a furious onslaught on his position, 
but Crown Point and Ticonderoga remained in the hands of the French. He knew, 
however, how to take the tide at the turn; England soon rang with the story of his 
bravery, his picturesque career, his commanding personality; Parliament gave him 
the substantial recognition of five thousand pounds and the King made him a 
baronet ! 

The French took advantage of the period of inaction which followed this 
indecisive struggle to entrench themselves at Ticonderoga, where two thousand men 
were set to work building Fort Carillon. An attempt to surprise the garrison of 
Fort William Henry was foiled by the energy of John Stark, one of the picturesque 
figures of the later struggle, whose version at the battle of Bennington of the famous 
phrase " Victory or Westminster Abbey " had a touch of Yankee domesticity. 
Fort William Henry, after a brave resistance under command of the spirited Monro, 



156 State of New York 



fell inlo the hands of Montcalm. The story of the massacre which followed when 
the French lost control of their Indian allies is the most terrible in the history of a 
region familiar with savage atrocity. Montcalm, a man of the highest standards 
of honor, begged the infuriated Indians to kill him and spare the English who were 
under his protection; but their fury was not stayed until they were met by an escort 
sent out to bring in the fugitives. For many decades the tradition of the slaughter 
of the fated column that set out from Fort William Henry for Fort Edward was 
the blackest in the annals of the colonies and a lasting grief to Montcalm. 

The Decisive Struggle 

The decisive struggle begun on the Monongahela was now transferred to Lake 
Champlain. In our history it is known as the French and Indian War, but the fight 
in the American woods was part of the world-wide struggle known as the Seven 
Years* War — one of those conflicts whose tremendous import becomes evident 
only when the smoke has long passed from the battlefield and the ultimate results 
stand revealed in the light of history. Voltaire's remark that " such was the compli- 
cation of political interests that a cannon-shot fired in America could give the signal 
that set Europe in a blaze " gains dramatic effect when we remember that the man 
who fired that shot, not from a cannon, but from a musket, was George Washington 
on the Western frontier ; the noblest figure who has yet appeared in the New World, 
unconspicuously opening the gate of the Great West and the gate of the Far East in 
the same moment. Parkman sums up the outcome of this impressive struggle in a 
few pregnant sentences: " The Seven Years' War made England what she is. 
It crippled the commerce of her rival, ruined France in two continents, and blighted 
her as a colonial power. It gave England the control of the seas and the mastery 
of North America and of India, made her the first of commercial nations, and 
prepared that vast colonial system that has planted new Englands in every quarter 
of the globe. And while it made England what she is, it supplied to the United 
States the indispensable condition of their greatness, if not of their National 
existence." 

Montcalm 

In the New World the " far-flung battle line " extended from Acadia to Fort 
Duquesne, on the Monongahela; but nowhere were the incidents more dramatic or 
the fights more fierce than in the Champlain valley. And in the history of colonial 
strife there is no more spirited and gallant figure than Louis Joseph, Marquis de 
Montcalm, the protagonist of the French in this world-wide contest. A native of 
Nimes, a student and lover of the Humanities, trained in Latin and Greek, a devout 
reader of the best literature, aspiring to membership in the French Academy, 



The Champlain Tercentenary 157 



Montcalm was forty-four years old when he appeared at Ticonderoga. He had 
already served with distinction in the French army and gained an enviable reputation 
as a commander. Behind the hardships, dangers, and heroism of his service in 
America one sees always the beautiful home in the fair landscape of Provence, the 
passionately loved wife, the group of children, the pleasant garden where his heart 
rested in infinite content, and to which his thoughts traveled with infinite longing 
until that September day when he fell on the Heights of Abraham, the women 
crying out as he was borne through the gate of Quebec: " He is killed! The 
Marquis is killed! " " Do not weep for me, my children," he answered; " it is 
nothing." And when he was told that the wound was mortal: "So much the 
better," he said: " I shall not live to see Quebec surrendered." So fell the curtain 
on one of the noble figures who have lighted the long history of France as with 
clear-burning torches fed by self-sacrifice; so happily fell Wolfe on the Heights of 
Abraham, sacred to the memory of two heroes who entered into immortality through 
the same gate. 

But Montcalm had great labors before him when he took command at Ticon- 
deroga. On the 4th of July, I 758, Lake George was covered by a vast flotilla 
organized by General Abercromby, but inspired by Lord Howe, bearing the largest 
army that had yet been seen in America, fifteen thousand strong, to the northern end 
of the lake, whence the troops moved into the woods. The regiments leading the 
march fell into disorder in the dense forests, and were set upon by a party of French 
who had been watching them from a hill; the main body of the English, opportunely 
arriving, cut off the attacking force from their base. The French commander, a 
man of experience in woodcraft, attempted to reach Ticonderoga by a circuit 
through the forest, but also lost his bearings. These incidents would be of slight 
consequence if a French bullet had not struck Lord Howe, leading the English 
column, ended a career of singular promise, and wrecked Abercromby's movement. 
The elder brother of Viscount Howe, the Admiral, and of Sir William Howe, 
Washington's antagonist a few years later, the young officer who fell in an other- 
wise unimportant skirmish between Lake George and Ticonderoga, had touched the 
imagination and won the hearts of the colonists. He had made himself the comrade 
of his troops, and adopted their methods of fighting instead of insisting on repeating 
in American forests the tactics of Old World campaigns in the open country. A 
wave of sorrow swept the country when the news of his death came, and a monu- 
ment placed in Westminster by Massachusetts attests the singular and tender regard 
in which he was held. 



58 State of New York 



The Defeat at Ticonderoga 

When Lord Howe fell in the woods as Colonel Williams had fallen before him 
the soul went out of the army. The capture of the wandering French regiments 
was a small gam compared with the loss of a brilliant leader. Montcalm quickly 
supplemented and strengthened his position by throwing up a barricade of trees 
which hid and protected his men on the ridge which rises northwest of Ticonderoga, 
and covered the approaches with densely interwoven boughs. A quick-witted 
antagonist might have made this position untenable by seizing Mount Defiance; but 
General Abercromby was not quick-witted. Misled by a report that Montcalm was 
about to be reinforced and making the fatal blunder of underrating the genius of 
Montcalm and the fighting qualities of the French, he ordered an assault in the 
most difficult and perilous form, a solid bayonet charge — a form of attack 
obviously impossible. But Abercromby, like some other commanders of that and 
later periods, took no account of conditions and accepted no advice from colonists, 
and sent his troops to death in a hopeless task. Caught in the tangle of boughs, 
swept by grape and shot, the English and the colonists flung themselves through 
the long, hot July afternoon with desperate and despairing valor against the deadly 
network in front of the barricades, only to be driven back, shattered and broken. 
When night fell two thousand men, dead or wounded, had paid the terrible price 
of Abercromby's dullness. When the story of this disastrous battle was told, with 
accounts of the hasty retreat to Fort William Henry, the colonists revenged them- 
selves by calHng the incompetent commander " Mrs. Nabbycrombie." 

There were brighter days for English rule in the near future; Louisburg was to 
be taken for the last time, Duquesne was to be abandoned, Niagara and Fort 
Frontenac were to pass into English hands, and Wolfe was to climb the steep ascent 
to victory at Quebec; but the curtain drops on the second act in the drama of race 
struggle in the valley of Lake Champlain. 

The Colonists in Arms 

WTien it rose again the stage setting was unchanged, but one group of actors 
had disappeared and the other group, long acting together, had become antagonists. 
The French and Indian War established English authority in Canada, but weakened 
it in the colonies. The colonists, separated by long distances and slow methods of 
transit, were divided one from another by local ignorance, provincial jealousies, 
differences of conviction in matters of religion, statecraft, education, and social 
order; the struggle on the long frontier had made them aware of a common danger 
and accustomed them to community of action. Franklin's statesmanlike plan for 



The Champlain Tercentenary 159 



union was in advance of public opinion, but events were fast ripening the colonial 
mind for this larger conception of political life in the New World. The years fol- 
lov/ing the struggle with the French were full of agitation and growing restlessness. 
A home government carried on by a few men ignorant of vital conditions across the 
Atlantic and of the temper of the high-spirited, freedom-loving Englishmen on the 
edges of the undeveloped continent, and a great group of colonists, sensitive, inde- 
pendent, restless under a rule which was un-English in spirit and largely in method, 
involved ultimately an appeal to arms, and the War of the American Revolution 
took its place as a phase of the struggle for popular government among the English- 
speaking peoples. In its inception not a conflict between two peoples but between 
a small party at home and a dominant majority beyond seas, it inevitably grew into 
a decisive trial of strength, bred deep misunderstandings, created passionate 
antagonisms, and turned the very kinship of the contestants into a source of bitter- 
ness. Time and distance, making possible that larger perspective in which events 
assume their true proportions and relations, and the acts of men stand revealed in 
their motives, have wrought their ancient and beautiful miracle of healing, and 
brought in that knowledge which is the unshakable foundation of friendship and 
respect. " How can I hate him? " said Charles Lamb of one of the most unpopular 
men of his day; " how can I hate him? I know him." In the light of this knowl- 
edge we celebrate to-day the common sincerity and courage of those who faced one 
another on almost half a hundred fields, and recognize that larger movement of 
events which makes those who call themselves enemies fight together in the great war 
for the emancipation of humanity. 

The Struggle to Command the Lake 

During the years that followed 1 775 scene after scene was enacted on Lake 
Champlain, and the curtain drops only to rise again on some new incident, some 
daring exploit, some decisive achievement. It was the stage of many striking 
episodes, and it found its place in the largest strategical schemes for the suppression 
of the revolt of the colonists. In this brief survey these events can be recalled only 
in a series of rapidly drawn sketches. The colonists had gone to Canada more than 
once in the days of French dominion, and when hostilities broke out the thoughts of 
the New England patriots turned swiftly to the north. At the very beginning of 
the struggle a dashing exploit stirred the blood of the whole country. Benedict 
Arnold eagerly advocated an expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
and went to Berkshire to raise men to carry the project into effect. There he found 
himself forestalled by Ethan Allen, a leader among the " Green Mountain Boys," 
who were banded together to resist the encroachments of New York, and a typical 
colonial American in his sturdy self-reliance, his celerity of action, and his impartial 



160 State of New York 



indifference to the formalities of peace or war. This picturesque fighter was acting 
partly on his own authority and partly on the authority of Connecticut, and declined 
to recognize the claim of Arnold to the command of the expedition. Thereupon 
Arnold, who was more eager to fight than to hold office, joined the expedition as a 
volunteer. At daybreak on May 1 0th Allen and Arnold crossed the lake with 
eighty-three men and unceremoniously broke the slumbers of the Ticonderoga gar- 
rison. When the English officer in command, rudely called from his bed, asked 
Allen under whose authority he acted, tradition puts into his mouth the brave 
words, ** In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The 
exact phraseology of Wellington at Waterloo, of Washington when he met Charles 
Lee at Monmouth, and of Ethan Allen on that historic morning is of small conse- 
quence; Allen, by deed and in word, fired the imagination of the thirteen colonies 
and gave ringing voice to their spirit and purpose. Later in the year a colonial force 
was at Ticonderoga, and news came that Sir Guy Carleton was planning, with the 
Iroquois, to make an attack from Canada; a counter-attack upon Montreal was 
promptly undertaken, and late in August, 1 775, General Richard Montgomery, 
one of the finest tempered men of his time, with two thousand men, advanced quickly 
from Ticonderoga to Fort St. Johns, and two months later entered Montreal, and 
issued a proclamation urging the Canadians to send delegates at once to the Conti- 
nental Congress; a delightfully picturesque example of American optimism and an 
expression, premature in time and ineffective in form, of the lasting friendship which 
was to come between the Dominion and the United States. Benedict Arnold, who, 
in the opening days of his career, was the soul of alert audacity and uncalculating 
daring, made a heroic march meantime through dense forests and across turbulent 
streams and climbed the Heights of Abraham the day after Montgomery entered 
Montreal. Quebec declined to surrender, Carleton escaped from Montreal in dis- 
guise and took command of the beleaguered city, and Montgomery was forced to 
come to the aid of Arnold. In a heavy snowstorm, at the darkest hour before dawn 
on the last day of the year, the two commanders made assaults on two sides of the 
town, and both fell at what promised to be the moment of success. Arnold was 
carried from the field severely wounded; and a company of Virginians, under a 
commander as gallant as themselves, drove themselves like a wedge into the heart 
of the city. But Montgomery lay dead beyond the walls, and the audacious expe- 
dition ended in disaster. The return of Montgomery to New York, borne in state 
down the Hudson, past the balcony where his devoted wife stood to honor him, is 
one of the beautiful traditions of war, and his monument in St, Paul's churchyard 
in the heart of New York is a perpetual reminder to the throngs that pass and repass 
on lower Broadway that success lies not in getting but in giving, not in hoarding 
but in spending. Frederick the Great, the first military authority of his time, praised 



The Champlain Tercentenary 161 

Montgomery's generalship, and Arnold became a popular hero on both sides the 
Atlantic. English schoolboys saw his portrait in shop windows in little English 
towns, and knew the story of his daring. 

Benedict Arnold 

New York became the center of operations, as it was the center of the colonial 
system, and the plan to strike the colonies and break them into fragments by seizing 
New York city and sending a large force up the Hudson to meet and co-operate with 
Sir Guy Carleton moving down from Canada, recapturing Ticonderoga, and taking 
possession of the Mohawk valley, if it had been successfully carried out, might have 
brought overwhelming disaster to the colonists* cause. When summer came Sir Guy 
had twelve thousand men afloat on the upper lake, and Arnold was working with 
furious energy at a little fleet manufactured out of hand in Vermont. In September, 
three schooners, two sloops, three galleys, and eight other craft lay off Valcour 
Island waiting for the English army from the north, and on the I I th day of October, 
English and American seamen met for the first time in those many trials of strength 
which have been conspicuous for valor and skill on both sides. After a day of 
desperate fighting, Arnold's little squadron had inflicted heavy injuries on Sir Guy's 
fleet, but was itself almost disabled. Its commander's genius, compounded in equal 
measure of swift insight and swifter action, in the darkness of the night carried his 
flotilla through the English lines, made for Crown Point, and was not overtaken 
until near that haven. He sent the fleet with every inch of canvas spread to Crown 
Point, met three of the largest of Sir Guy's ships, fought four hours with desperate 
courage, ran his sinking schooner covered with dead and dying men into a small 
creek and set her afire, her flag flying until the flames plucked it down. A little 
later his whole force was in Ticonderoga. Sir Guy, having gained control of the 
lake, withdrew his army. 

BURGOYNE AT TiCONDEROGA 

A second plan of campaign was formulated and again New York was the scene 
of action. An army was to descend as before on Ticonderoga, a second force was 
to land at Oswego, take possession of the Mohawk valley and join the invading 
party from Lake Champlain, while Sir William Howe was to ascend the Hudson 
with the main army and meet the two forces from the north at Albany. On the 
second anniversary of Bunker Hill General Burgoyne appeared before Ticonderoga 
with an army of nearly eight thousand men, half of them British regulars commanded 
by officers of tried capacity. The fort was regarded by the colonists as impregnable. 
and General St. Clair held it confidently with less than half the number of his 
12 



162 State of New York 



opponents. As has often happened since the days of Achilles, there was one vulner- 
able spot: a crag a mile to the south offered an altitude from which the fort could 
be swept by cannon. General Phillips, one of Burgoyne's most skillful officers, saw 
the weak point in the situation of the American force. " Where a goat can go a 
man may go; and where a man can go he can haul up a gun," said Phillips, and 
under his gallant leadership the men went and hauled up the guns with them, and on 
the morning of July 5th there they stood, red-coated and triumphant, on Mount 
Defiance. St. Clair had his choice of surrender or escape, and, being a sensible per- 
son he reversed the English action and stole across the lake in the darkness. General 
Fraser went hot-footed after the Americans, overtook the rear-guard near the village 
of Hubbardtown, was falling back after a sharp engagement, when he was rein- 
forced, turned, and routed the retreating forces. Ticonderoga again changed hands 
and there were those in England who thought the fight was won; in the colonies 
there were profound discouragement and the usual prompt and unintelligent criti- 
cisms. General Schuyler, who was in command of the department, especially suf- 
fered; but Schuyler was of a purity and steadfastness which, sooner or later, emerge 
the whiter for the testing of self-control and patience. 

Leaving a large force at Ticonderoga, General Burgoyne set out on the campaign 
which reflected great credit on his courage but brought irretrievable disaster to his 
army, wrecked the plan to divide the colonies, and made the final success of the 
Americans possible. A brave and gallant soldier, a kindly and tender-hearted man, 
it was his unhappy fate, probably under orders from London, to employ Indian 
allies, and he tried to pledge them to civilized warfare by forbidding the killing of 
old men, of women, and of children, and the scalping of living prisoners. When 
these injunctions were read in England, Burke, who with Charles James Fox and a 
small group of the ablest public men of the time, exercised for Americans that right 
of representation in Parliament which was part of the American contention, made 
one of his most striking speeches. " Suppose that there was a riot on Tower Hill," 
he said; " what would the keeper of his Majesty's lions do? Would he not fling 
open the dens of the wild beasts and address them thus? * My gende lions, my 
humane bears, my tender-hearted hyenas, go forth! But I exhort you, as you are 
Christians and members of civilized society, to take care not to hurt any man, 
woman, or child.' " 

The story of the campaign which ended in the surrender of Burgoyne's army, of 
Schuyler's noble patience and more than Roman dignity, of Arnold's daring and 
splendid self- forget fulness, crying out as he fell with a shattered leg to the man who 
would have driven a bayonet into his assailant, " For God's sake, don't hurt him; 
he's a fine fellow," does not belong to the Champlain valley, though so closely 
associated with it. It was the tragedy of the Revolution that Arnold did not die 



The Champlain Tercentenary 163 



on that heroic day when he was the lion of the American army, the idol of the 
American people, the friend of Washington, the dauntless hero of Quebec and 
Saratoga. The Arnold of Lake Champlain is the most brilliant figure of the 
Revolution; if he could have died then, with what words of love and honor we 
should celebrate him to-day! Now we cover him and turn our faces away. 

The Battle of Plattsburgh 

With the surrender of Burgoyne the tide of war rolled southward, and for 
almost a generation Lake Champlain knew no fiercer struggles than those between 
the elements. When the War of 1812 began, there were two gunboats in a harbor 
on the Vermont side; during the summer this force was reinforced by two sloops 
and four scows; an improvised fleet, ridiculous in size and armament, but a flexible 
and effective tool in the hands of a skillful and daring commander of the energy of 
Commodore Macdonough. The flagship of this tiny squadron, the Saratoga, car- 
ried twenty-six guns; the English flagship, the Confiance, thirty-seven guns. In the 
judgment of the Duke of Wellington, the control of the lake was vital to the 
success of the invasion which was to inflict a crushing blow on the Americans. An 
army of nearly fourteen thousand men was massed on the frontier under the com- 
mand of Sir George Prevost. On the last day of August this force crossed the line 
and marched without opposition to Chazy, entering Plattsburgh on the evening of 
September 6th, General Macomb retreating across the river and taking up the bridges. 
The decisive moment was at hand, and could be made decisive only by the destruc- 
tion of the American fleet. On the 1 I th day of September the fleet was at anchor 
in Cumberland Bay; General Macomb, with less than five thousand men, was 
intrenched on the Bay in such a position as to support the fleet but unable to fire on 
the English vessels without endangering the American ships. The bay, two miles 
wide, afforded sufficient room for the maneuvering of the diminutive squadrons. The 
English fleet came up with a north tide from Cumberland Head, the Confiance with 
her battery of thirty-seven guns leading the way, followed by the Linnet, the Chub, 
and the Finch, supported by eleven gunboats. The Confiance was to engage the 
Saratoga, giving the Eagle a broadside as she passed on her way; while the Linnet 
and Chub were to close with the Eagle. Three English ships were to meet the two 
strongest American vessels, while the Finch, with the gunboats, was to engage the 
American rear. The American gunboats were stationed between the shore and the 
fleet and were negligible in the result. The English fleet rounded Cumberland 
Head on the morning of the 1 I th, the Finch leading the way, followed by the 
Confiance, Linnet, and Chub. The Confiance promptly attacked the Eagle, drew 
fire of the entire American fleet, the wind failed and she was unable to execute the 



164 State of New York 



plan of action, but her first broadside killed one-fifth of the Saratogas crew; the 
Linnet performed her part by engaging the Eagle, but the Chub suffered such 
damage that she drifted through the American hnes and pulled down her flag. The 
Linnet, strongly handled, drove the Eagle from the line. The Einch drifted 
ashore a mile south of the fighting ground and kept her flag at the mast after her 
consorts had surrendered. The fight became a contest between the Saratoga and the 
Eagle on the American side and the Confiance and Linnet on the English side, and 
it was fought to a finish in two hours and twenty minutes. The Eagle, practically 
silenced on one side, ran down the line, swung her effective side toward the enemy, 
and kept up a destructive fire on the Confiance. The Saratoga, similarly disabled 
on the starboard side, followed the tactics of the Eagle, fighting with one arm after 
the other had been made useless. The Confiance, bereft of her ropes and anchors, 
was unable to maneuver, and, with only four guns workable, finally struck her 
colors, followed fifteen minutes after by the Linnet. It was a gallant fight and the 
English and American seamen, who are now cheering one another in the harbors 
of the world, eager, it may be suspected, to stand by in any hour of need, fought 
with the desperate courage and native aptitude for struggle on the high seas which 
have placed the two modern navies, on a great disparity so far as numbers are con- 
cerned, on the same footing so far as gallantry and skill are concerned. So ended 
the battle of Plattsburgh and the long history of armies and fleets, of the roar of 
cannon and tumult of battle, in the valley of Lake Champlain. Even then the 
light of a happier day was in the east. A contemporary record reads in this wise: 
" The wounded of both fleets, and our army, the same evening, were landed at our 
cantonment on the island. The enemy was not neglected; prompt assistance was 
indiscriminately rendered. Those who had but one hour previous been deadly foes, 
now lodged by each other's side, like brothers and friends, giving and receiving the 
tenderest words of consolation." 

Almost a century has passed since hostile fleets made the hills echo with the 
thunder of their guns, and armies fought their perilous ways through the wilderness. 
To-day these are memories of " far-off, unhappy things and battles long ago." A 
hundred years of peace have come and gone and brought prosperity of hand and 
brain, of field and craft, of knowledge and religion. Colonial towns have become 
cities, and twoscore villages look out from under shaded streets to the great hills 
whence cometh our help. Health, rest, and pleasure have found the valley of the 
lake one of those fastnesses of peace and beauty which, like the Garden of the 
Hesperides, the fair land of the Phaeacians, the forest of Arden, are refuges of the 
spirit from the turmoil and care, the toil and weariness, of the working world. But 
nobler than all other prosperities that have come to this beautiful valley, to this 
lovely lake around which the hills keep watch and ward, is that spirit of brotherhood. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 165 



that larger and diviner thought of hfe, which to-day bring together Indian, French- 
man, Englishman, Canadian, American, ancient foes become modern friends; their 
rivalries the contests of skill and industry, their differences those divergences of 
talent and temperament which give society its endless variety and interest, their com- 
petitions the struggles of those who run together for the prizes of life, their growing 
rest in faith in one another the prophecy of that happier age which is already at our 
doors. 

Fair France: protagonist of liberty through tragic or peaceful years, fearless to 
face the destiny to which her ardent spirit leads her, lover of beauty and tireless 
artificer of the things of art, swift to believe in the greatness of humanity and slow 
to give up her vision of equality and fraternity — how much does civilization owe 
to her intrepid spirit, her dauntless heart, her restless energy! Manners, freedom, 
power — they are all hers, and ours because they are hers! England, the garden 
of the world, in whose shaded lanes, venerable colleges, stately homes, and soaring 
cathedrals the American finds the background of his early associations, the shrines 
of the language he speaks and the literature to which he is heir; England, ripe with 
the beauty of age but strong in unwasted energy of spirit; rarely without her vision, 
never without her task; poet with her Shakespeare, sailor with her Nelson, soldier 
with her Wolfe, statesman wdth her Chatham, organizer and ruler with her Cromer ! 
Canada, home of two races and happy in their comradeship, builder of stately cities, 
of growing universities, reaper of a prosperity won by hardy toil and sturdy self- 
reliance, a Dominion swiftly passing into an empire! The Indian, survivor of a 
people whose story is the tragedy of the undeveloped in the path of the organized 
race; victim of the law which impels alike the aggressor and the exiled; oppressed 
that others might be free! The United States, the host of the day, and proud of 
the friends who keep the festival of peace on her soil; warden of the open gate; 
keeper of the open house; eager, impulsive, often blundering, always bearing in her 
heart that faith in man which is faith in God, flowering in the furrows of time and 
toil! (Applause.) 

Chairman Hill — We are now to listen to an original ballad entitled 
" Ticonderoga," by Percy MacKaye, of Cornish, New Hampshire. 

Mr. MacKaye delivered his poem, as follows: 



166 State of New York 

TICONDEROGA 

A BALLAD 

By Percy MacKaYE, of Cornish, New Hampshire. 

(From "Poems" by Percy McKaye, copyright 1909, by Macmillan Company, reprinted by 
special permission of the publishers.) 

I 

iVhat spirits conjure thee from time, 

Ticonderoga? 
On thy headland rocfi 
Of history. 

Who are these that knock 
And summon thee 
To move thine ancient lips in rhyme, 

Ticonderoga? 

Where the wind-blown swallows 

Veer and vary. 

Where the shore and shallows 

Lie visionary. 

Titans three 

Stand at my knee: 

Each one is a Century. 

In their shadow, silently. 

Sits the sibyl Memory. 

And her silence questions me: 

II 

Who glide so dim upon the lake, 

Ticonderoga? 
Over their dreaming prow 
The morning star 
Blazes their goal; hut now — 
More dusk and far — 
What old world dwindles in their Wake, 

Ticonderoga? 



The Champlain Tercentenary 167 



The fleur-de-lis. the fleur-de-lis! 

The White Chevalier — lo, 'tis he ! 

His pale canoe along the tide 

The painted Huron paddles guide 

With dumb, subdued elation; 

The \vild dawn stains their bodies bare. 

The wild dawn gleams about his hair; 

Steeped in his soul's adventure, he 

The valleys of discovery — 

The peaks of expectation. 

Midway the lake they pause: on high 

His arm he raises solemnly. 

Above the lilies, that emboss 

His azure banner, and the pied 

Algonquin plumes that float beside. 

He holds the shining cross. 

" Champlain! " The placid word 

The mute air hath not stirred. 

Touched by the morning's wing 

The ruddied waters, quickening. 

Alone are kindled by that christening. 

Quaint splendors mass 

Within the lake's clear glass. 

And liquid lilies golden run 

In rose gules of the rising sun. 

Naught else there of acclaim 

Greets the great Chevalier's name. 

Save where the water-fowl's primeval broods 

Awake Bulwagga's lone and echoing solitudes. 

Ill 

What strident horror breaks th}) spell, 

Ticonderoga? 
What long and ululating yell? 

The Iroquois: in covert glade 
They build their pine-bough palisade. 
And weave in trance 
Their sachem dance 



168 State of New York 



With hawk-screams of their heathen wars, 

Till naked on my shrilling shores 

Maqua and wild Algonquin meet 

And taunt, with fleer and blown conceit. 

Each other's painted ranks: 

But lo ! where now their flanks 

Give way and reel! 

And mid the silent sagamores. 

In shining cuish and casque of steel. 

Before them all 

Stands bright and tall. 

With gauntlet clenched and helmet viced. 

The calm knight-errant of the Christ; 

Then, in sign miraculous. 

Levels his arquebus. 

And, charged with bullets from his bandoleer. 

Looses the bolt of preternatural thunder. 

A sachem falls: the wild men stare in wonder 

And mazed fear; 

Once more his engine peals, and hurls the fire 

Whose flash shall kindle continents to ire. 

IV 

Liks sanguine clouds at sunset spread 
The ages slumber round th^ head, 

Ticonderoga! 
Tremendous forms 
Loom in their dreams: 
Through levin-light of starless storms, 
B}) giant fords of chartless streams, 
Saxon and Caul 
Wrestle and rise and fall. 
Conquering the region aboriginal. 
Hark! From the long tides of Lake Ceorge, 
What rolling drum-beat rumbles through th^ gorge, 

Ticonderoga? 



The Champlain Tercentenary 169 



O why should woman weep for war? 
Or man — why should it vex him more? 
Or why beside so sweet a shore 

Dreadful should the drum be? 

O clear the snorting trumpets neigh. 
And blithe the squealing bagpipes play! 
O red the redcoats on the bay. 
Sailing with Abercrombie! 

A thousand bateaux floating glide 
And flaunt their banners sheen; 

Calm isles swim by on the summer tide 
Clad in their birchen green. 

Lord Howe he lies on a rude bearskin 

Beneath the pleasant sky; 
Says: " Never day hath fairer been 

For one's dear land to die." 

Says: " Tell me true now, gallant Stark, 
What trail may foil the Frenchmen? 

Where should our redcoats disembark 

To rout Montcalm his henchmen? " 

A troutbrook once I fished. Lord Howe, 

To fry my catch in bacon: 
Along that trail. Sir, I'll allow 

Ticonderoga's taken." 

O what so wildly fair as war! 
From dancing skiff and dripping oar 
Land down on yonder dreamy shore 
And drowsy let the drum be. 

O proud as life the far crag's flush! 
And sweet as youth — the hermit-thrush ! 
O deep as death the dark wood's hush, 
Marching with Abercrombie ! 



170 State of New York 



Our trail grows blind, good Putnam: draw 
More close your forest rangers. 

By yonder balsam [hark!] I saw — 

Who calls there — friends or strangers? 

A mile hence runs a mill, Lord Howe: 
Might be the Frenchers sawing; 

Or likely. Sir, ye heard yon crow 

Round Roger's Rock a-cawing." 

Qui vive? Their muskets flare the wood; 

Frangais! Their wild cheers start: 
Lord Howe is dropt down where he stood, 

A hot ball through his heart. 

They drive them back, they drown their boast 
In blood and the rushing river. 

But the heart of Abercrombie's host — 
The Lord of Hosts deliver! 



Said is prayer and sung is psalm; 

In the moonlight waits Montcalm. 

Felled is tree and sunk is trench; 

On their ramparts rests the French. 

Moon is waned and night is gone. 

And the plateau, in the dawn, 

Strown with strange gigantic v^nrack. 

Bristles like a wild boar's back. 

Horrid shagg'd with monstrous spines 

Of splintered oaks and tangled pines. 

Where last night the setting sun 

Placid forest looked upon. 

In its place the sunrise sees 

Rubble heaps of writhen trees. 

Boughs — that hid the shy bird's nest — ■ 

Sharpened for a soldier's breast. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 171 



Hot soars the sun: in dove-white swarms 
Cluster the dazzhng uniforms 
Along the earthworks; distant shines 
The vanguard of the English lines. 
Scarlet from the sombre firs 
They start like sudden tanagers. 
And smoothly sweep the open glade 
Toward the abatis. There, waylaid. 
They flounder midst the galling heap 
Of tumbled branches, where they leap 
And crawl, as mid some huge morass. 
Like locusts in storm-beaten grass. 
The looming breastworks now they see 
But still no foemen. Suddenly, 
Blinding the noon, a dusk of smoke 
Blooms, and the roaring air hath broke 
In hurricanes of scorching hail. 
Through which, to dying eyes that quail. 
Falls the round sun — a fiery grail. 

Vive le Roi! rings from the wall 
Of flame: Vive notre General! 

Choked by the fury and the fire. 
The rended English rank suspire 
A moment's pause, then maddened rush 
Stifling through the giant brush. 
Where, trapped in pits of jagged spars. 
Rangers and yelling regulars 
Struggle to shoot and strain to see 
The blithe and viewless enemy. 

Vive le Ro'i! shrilly the call 
Rings clear; Five notre General/ 

Whirled from the zigzag bastion's scarp. 
The hellish crossfire weaves its warp. 
Thrice they return, and thrice again: 
Image of God! and are these men 
With eyes upturned in sightless stare. 
Glazed with the dead hate that they glare: 



172 State of New York 



And one, with dumb mouth, shouts in death. 

To one the red blood strangleth, 

And one, outstretched with woeful brow. 

Hangs spiked upon a greenwood bough. 

Wrought in a sculptured agony 

Like Him that died upon a tree. 

The soul of Abercrombie's host 

Follows Lord Howe — his shining ghost: 

On stormy ridge and parapet 

It rides in flame, it leads them yet; 

Smiling, with wistful image wan, 

A dead man leads the dying on. 

And Campbell, Laird of Inverawe, 

Hath met the doom his dream foresaw: 

Pierced by his murdered kinsman's eyes. 

His clansmen bear him where he dies. 

Lord Howe, Lord Howe, why shouldst thou fall! 

Thy life it was the life of all ; 

Thy death ten thousand hath undone. 

England hath sunken with the sun. 

Ticonderoga's lost and won! 



O women, weep ye yet for war? 
Bugles and banners, flaunt no more! 
For some be sleeping by the shore 

In slumber dark, and some be 
Awake in fever's roaring gorge. 
And some, in crowded keels that forge 
Southward, curse heaven and Lake George, 

Flying with Abercrombie ! 

V 

Still round th^ brorv the riven rvar-clouds range, 

Ticonderoga: 
The conquest marches though the colors change. 
And now, where revolutions lightnings run. 
Beyond the battle-smoke, sublime and Wan, 
Quivers the patient star of Washington. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 173 



Ranger 'gainst regular. 
Sundered in enmii}). 
Opens thine ancient scar 
Nervl]) — for liberty. 
Now with a rushing noise 
Burst freedom's fountains 
Where the green-forest boys 
March from their mountains. 
Listen! What wheedling fife 
Quickens thy smouldering memories to life, 
Ticonderoga? 

We're marching for to take the fort 

With Ethan — Ethan Allen. 
That when with fight he fills a quart 

He ups and gulps a gallon. 
Double-quick-it ! faster ! — hep ! 

Lord! his blood is brandy. 
Mind the music and the step, 

And hold your muskets handy. 

Friends and fellow soldiers — halt ! 

Mind your P's, you noodle! 
What mother's son will earn his salt 

And dance to Yankee Doodle? 
There stands Ticonderoga: state 

What now ye mean to do there. 
Yen's the fortress* wicket-gate : 

How many will march through there? 

As many now as volunteer 

Poise your firelocks ! — Right, Sir ! 
Each man has swung his musket clear. 

Each man files off to fight. Sir. 
The British sentry points his gun. 

And Ethan hears him click it; 
He fires: the Yankees yell " Come on! " 

And thunder through the wicket. 



174 State of New York 



They thunder through the barracks court 

And ram the British mortars. — 
What rag-tail rebels makes such sport 

In great King George's quarters? — 
King George's style is over. Sir ! 

You redcoats wear the wrong dress: 
Ground arms to the great Jehovah, Sir, 

And the Continental Congress! 
Their arms they've handed over, there. 

And rueful in their wrong dress 
They've bowed to the great Jehovah, there. 

And the Continental Congress. 

VI 

Thine e^es grow dream}) in the evening haze, 

Ticonderoga. 
Where, in mimic art 
Ephemeral, 

Thy pilgrims hold their part 
In festival. 
On Tvhat eternal pageants dost thou gaze, 

Ticonderoga? 

Soldier and saint and sagamore 
Are vanished from my tranquil shore. 
The ripples that the summer breeze 
Awakes — they are my reveries : 
The day-fly dartles where below 
The Royal Savage hides her woe, 
And where the silver lake-trout ply 
Arnold still grapples with Sir Guy. 
On Mount Defiance, looming proud. 
Glowers Burgoyne — a twilight cloud. 
In whose spent shower's radiance 
Macdonough fights the Confiance. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 175 



Battles whose blood is liberty. 
Heroes whose dreams are history. 
Imagination hath them wrought. 
Tempering all things to a thought. 
Painting the land, the lake, the sky. 
With pageants of the dreamer's eye. 

So, by my visionary shore. 

Soldier and saint and sagamore 

Live in my shadow evermore: 

Where, lapt in beauty sleeps Champlain, 

Lulled are the passion and the pain; 

The legend and the race remain. 

(Applause.) 

Governor HUGHES — Fellow Citizens: While we are talking about 
the past, the future is looking on ; while we are recounting the details of 
the Old World and the ambitions of France and England and the final 
success of the United States, we are honored with the presence of a 
distinguished representative of that powerful and progressive nation of the 
East, the firm friend of the United States — Japan. (Applause.) I 
have great pleasure in introducing to you Vice-Admiral Uriu, of Japan. 

Vice- Admiral Uriu — Gentlemen: I am making a trip in the United States 
and I am very fortunate that I am in the United States on this grand occasion and 
invited to this distinguished party, and I celebrate this great occasion with a full 
heart and sentiment toward you. (Applause.) Now let me have this occasion 
to tell you I have been travelling a few months in the United States. Wherever 
I have been I have been received with the greatest courtesy and heart. If I take 
this to Japan to hear the real story they will be very much gratified and feel very 
grateful to you. On this occasion I have to thank you for your courtesy. (Applause.) 

Chairman Hill — Ladies and Gentlemen: You will notice that this 
programme has been completed within time, and we are now 
awaiting the arrival of the President of the United States. (Applause.) 
We propose a cessation of hostilities and we will rest a moment or two. 
[Cries of *' Seth Low," " Seth Low! "] Honorable Seth Low will 
speak to you. 



176 State of New York 



Hon. Seth Low — Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I had the pleasure yesterday of speaking at Crown Point, and it is a great pleasure 
to me to be able to face here this great company at Ticonderoga. You have heard 
already a great deal about the things that are certain in connection with those places. 
I want to propose to you two questions that deal with the uncertain. I want to 
know whether it was at Crown Point or at Ticonderoga that Champlain had his 
great fight with the Iroquois about which you have heard. 

(A voice) — I give it up. 

Governor HuGHES — Put it to vote. 

Hon. Seth Low — Yesterday I was entirely convinced that that dramatic 
incident took place at Crown Point. (Laughter.) The Governor suggests that 
I should take the sense of this audience as to whether or not it was at Ticonderoga. 
Those who believe it was Ticonderoga please raise your hands. (A general 
response.) That settles it. (Laughter.) Another historic question was opened 
up yesterday, which remains to be settled in the same manner. That question was 
whether the Fort erected in 1731 at Crown Point was Fort Frederic or Fort St. 
Frederic. It was named after the French Secretary of State of that day. Every- 
body admits that. I hope it is not an unpardonable sin to doubt whether the Secre- 
tary of State of that day was a real Saint. (Laughter.) Whether he were or not, 
a great many people have sainted the fort that was named after him, and I would 
like to get the sense of this audience as to whether or not in the future those ruins 
shall be the ruins of Fort Frederic or the ruins of Fort Saint Frederic. All of 
those in favor of " Fort Saint Frederic " will please say "Aye." [A few "Ayes."] 
Those in favor of " Fort Frederic " will please say " Aye." (Unanimous 
response.) I am very much afraid the reputation of that saint is gone forever. It 
really is a wonderful thing for us Americans to have the opportunity to come face 
to face now and then with our own inspiring past. The problems of our own day 
are so pressing and so fascinating that we are sometimes tempted to forget that all 
that we are and all that we have rests upon the foundation of the splendid men and 
women who have gone before us. (Applause.) When one reads of the numbers 
of these contending armies and compares them with the hundreds of thousands of 
men who gather to-day under historic banners when great nations go to war, it 
seems as if, when we read of those things, our thoughts glide backward to the day 
of simple things, but when we reflect upon the issue of the combative interests 
carried on by those small armies and realize that the destinies of this continent were 
settled there and by them, then we realize that the power of the Almighty is not 
measured by the number of armed men, but to His will carried out through the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 177 



processes of time. I think it to be a fact that Washington never commanded so 
many as 1 6,000 men, perhaps he did command that number at Yorktown ; but 
the battles of the Revolution were fought and won by a handful of men; and we 
will, as I said a moment ago, whenever we get the opportunity, we Americans will 
realize that the greatness of our country to-day, this wide-stretching area with its 
vast population, its only partially developed resources, we owe, after all, to the 
fidelity of a few men to the duty of the hour as they saw it, and if we can learn 
from them that lesson and be true in our own time to the duties that lay before us, 
the unnumbered multitudes who are destined to inhabit the United States in the 
days to come, we may hope will look back upon us as we look back upon the 
Revolutionary fathers with gratitude in their hearts and with praise to the Almighty 
God. 

[At this point there were vociferous calls for Assemblyman Shea to 
speak. ] 

Assemblyman James SheA — Ladies and Centlemen: I wish to thank you 
for this cordial reception. I welcome you to this beautiful historic spot and especially 
my colleagues in the Legislature. I would not perhaps have been noticed had I 
not been actively identified with this Tercentenary celebration. I did not come 
here to speak because I know there are many more noted speakers present than I 
am; but I am trying in my modest way to get as much out of the occasion as 
possible. I am gratified to see these historic ruins visited by the representatives of 
three great powers now in friendly accord and I trust this amity will ever continue. 
(Applause. ) 

Senator HiLL — Ladies and Gentlemen: If you will be patient we will 
try to entertain you. We are very fortunate in having another dis- 
tinguished Vermonter here to-day, a gentleman who in the last Congress 
introduced and carried through the resolution which committed the United 
States to participate in these celebration exercises. I have the pleasure of 
introducing to you Representative David J. Foster, of Vermont. 

Representative FoSTER — Mr. Chairman, ^our Excellencies, Ladies and Centle- 
men: I am very glad for this opportunity of reminding you that there was an 
occasion when Vermont set the pace for New York. When I was a lad and lived 
at home on the farm I used to like to ride the old farm horse on errands for my 
father, and, boy-hke, I used to like to get up all the speed I could, and on one of 
those occasions after I had got astride of the old horse, I asked my father to step 
13 



78 State of New York 



into the shed and bring out a pair of old spurs that hung there and put them on my 
heels. Well he came back with one, which he put on. I protested and wanted 
them both on. He said " My son, if you can make one side of that old horse 
go you need have no apprehension about the other side keeping up." (Applause.) 
So, some years ago when there was some disagreement between Vermont and New 
York, we sent one Ethan Allen over here to Ticonderoga to set a pace for you, 
and you have been keeping it up ever since. In fact I am rather thinking that you 
are the ones who set the pace to-day, although our Governor Prouty is a mighty 
good second to your Governor Hughes. 

Well now, my friends, in the midst of all this local pride, in the presence of all 
the memories of this local historical spot, you do not want to forget the great nation 
that lies behind it all. We have with us to-day among our distinguished guests, a 
representative of the great ** Yankee " nation of the Far East — Japan — and 
you want to remember that while you are fulfilling all the aspirations of Governor 
Hughes in making good American citizens, in upholding the interests of your great 
commonwealth, your great Empire State, above and beyond all that you have a 
duty as American citizens in holding up the honor and the dignity and the prestige 
of the great American Republic. For, my friends, we have a duty abroad as well 
as a duty at home. This great American nation stands for justice and peace and 
righteousness among the nations of the earth as it stands for fair play between man 
and man here at home. I want to remind our great representative of the Japanese 
Empire that when Russia and Japan were engaged in the greatest conflict the world 
has seen since our own Civil War, there was no nation in the Old World to take 
the first step towards bringing those warring nations together in a peace conference. 
It remained for the American Republic to bring those nations together in a peace 
conference at Portsmouth, the first international conference ever held on American 
soil. We all remember how that Russian historian — that Russian writer — 
declares that finally peace was secured between those warring nations only through 
the tremendous influence of President Roosevelt (applause) backed by the tremen- 
dous influence of the conscience and public spirit of ninety million American people. 

Do you remember what Anson Burlingame, that great American who represented 
us so well in China, said on his visit to England? He was taken by our Minister 
there to the British House of Commons and given a seat in one of the most desirable 
of the galleries; but he had hardly got seated when an official came along and 
ordered him out, saying that that particular gallery was reserved for the peers of 
the realm; but just then one of the peers of the realm came along and recognized 
Burlingame as an American and he said "Let him remain; they are all peers of 
the realm in his country;" but Burlingame arose and said: "Sir, we are all 
sovereigns in our country," and went out. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 179 



And indeed we are all American sovereigns in this country ; there are no subjects, 
and we not only have a duty in administering our affairs here at home in the interest 
of our American sovereign, but we have the further duty of exerting our influence 
among the nations of the earth towards the preservation of peace and towards the 
furtherance of justice among those nations. 

Now, I am not going to detain you. I have a colleague here who will be 
introduced as soon as I have finished, and I want to tell you in closing that he is 
not only a better man than I am, but there is more of him. I am very glad to see 
you all. I helped to get that little bill through and that little appropriation through, 
but after all my friend Malby was the one who did it. Do you know, Malby — 
Congressman Malby — is the one who did it. (Applause.) I stood some little 
distance behind him, but he was the man that did it. I find, my friends, that 
whatever New York wants down there, whether it is at the White House or in the 
Capitol, New York gets. You are a large State. I suppose you are going to 
get the Presidency one of these days. (Cries of " Yes, sir.") Now, having 
made myself so very popular in that respect, I will close and thank you for your 
consideration. (Applause.) 

The entire assemblage then sang "America." 

Senator HiLL — Ladies and Gentlemen: We are fortunate in having 
with us another Vermont Representative on this occasion. We will hear 
briefly from Representative Frank Plumley. 

Representative Plumley — Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Commission, 
Governors of Vermont and New York, Ladies and Gentlemen: I supposed that 
my brother Foster and myself were travelling entirely incog, and had not the 
slightest expectation of appearing in your presence to-day, but in order that the 
time may be occupied until the arrival of our Chief Magistrate, it has been suggested 
that the edifice of oratory — of prose and of poetry — which has been erected 
before you, should have a few rocks placed in front as stepping stones to the next 
event; and also, I assume, that since Mr. Foster has been in your presence you may 
be permitted to see the long and the short of the Vermont delegation. Being a 
small State, having but two representatives, we find it essential in order that we may 
count at all in the Congress of our nation, that we should stand together through 
thick and thin. (Applause.) I am always inclined to take a broad view of the 
situation. (Laughter.) This is my first appearance in a public way upon the soil 
of old New York, and like our Governor, I am fully persuaded that you have that 
about your soil which sticks closer than a brother. Living, as I have, in Vermont 
all my life, save for occasional outings, I have learned to love its native hills and 



180 State of New York 

valleys, its forests and its mountains, while I have looked admiringly across the 
great lake which has not severed, but which has tended to unite us, with admiring 
and loving glances upon your grand old Adirondacks; I have observed, as I have 
sailed — or rode rather — upon the lake, that the foothills of Vermont clad in 
their emerald green, and the foothills of the Adirondacks also so clad, have each 
touched the waters of your lake and of ours in loving kisses and tender embraces, 
while the placid waters themselves have reflected the heavenly blue; so have our 
two States together lived in that union and accord, only made more manifest and 
more general in their happier union of the great nation, the concord of States which 
forms the great union of the United States. (Applause.) 

At this point President Taft arrived and was received with a grand 
ovation. 

Governor HuGHES — Three cheers for the President of the United 
States. 

Three cheers were given with a will by the assemblage. 

Senator HiLL, in introducing the next speaker, said: Ladies and 
Gentlemen: This historic spot was made first illustrious by the bravery, 
the valor and the sagacity of the French nation. Its history is interwoven 
with that of France in the 1 7th and 1 8th centuries. On this occasion, in 
response to the invitation of the Government of the United States, the 
Republic of France has delegated a representative in the person of the 
French Ambassador, M. Jusserand, a noted writer and a distinguished 
diplomat, who will now address you. 

Remarks of the Ambassador of France 

Ambassador JussERAND — Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: In this 
same month of July, three centuries ago, this lake, with the fine forests bordering 
it then on every side, was seen for the first time by a European, as good a repre- 
sentative as one could wish of the white race, Samuel de Champlain, the navigator, 
the explorer, the honest man, the founder of Quebec. 

In this same month of July, a century and a half ago was fought, on this same 
spot, one of those battles where so much valor was shown on both sides that the 
vanquished carried away with him, while leaving the field, the esteem and admiration 
of the victor. In the long wars between France and England, whatever may have 
been the changeful issue of each contest, such an occurrence was the usual one. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 181 



The winner at Ticonderoga was one of the soldiers France can be most proud 
of, Montcalm, whose Hfe was short but every day of which was spent in the service 
of his nation. He belonged to a fighting race. " War is the tomb of the Mont- 
calms " was a popular saying in his province. He entered the army at thirteen 
(some even say at nine) and from that moment till his death did nothing but fight 
for his country. He was, however, one of those soldiers who believed that, to 
be a good fighter, one did not have to necessarily neglect letters, and he trusted that 
one could enjoy the beauty of a verse without the edge of the spirit being blunted. 
Let us not forget that Caesar was one of those, and Raleigh too, and Napoleon 
also, that determined admirer of Ossian. From the camp at Otrebach, being twenty- 
two, Montcalm was writing to his father: *' I am learning German, and am reading 
more Greek than I had done for three or four years." Fond of the classics, he 
never parted company with them; a Plutarch in Greek was his life-long companion. 
The day after Ticonderoga, the same man who had won the battle could compose 
two Latin hexameters and have them engraved on the cross raised by him to the 
memory of the dead. By a noteworthy coincidence they are to the same effect as 
the order of Henry V to his troops after Agincourt; an order one may read in 
Shakespeare and in the humility of which the king took great pride. 

Another charming trait in his personality is his fondness for his mother, for his 
wife and children. Married young, and the father of ten children, he kept his wife 
informed of all that happened to him, in witty, good humored letters, recalling those 
another young French officer. La Fayette, was to write later to his own wife also, 
from America. This last young wife was a Noailles, and it was old Marechal de 
Noailles, her grandfather, who had, in early days, drawn the horoscope of Mont- 
calm, saying: " He is one of those rare officers who are still attracted by what is 
great.** After his storming of Fort Oswego on the Ontario, one of his most 
valorous deeds, which he modestly calls " a rather pretty adventure," he concludes 
his letter to his wife thus: " Be my mother and be careful to love me; and may I 
join you all next year. I kiss my daughters; it is not possible, dearest, to love you 
more dearly than I do." 

When the time came for him to show that he was really attracted by " what is 
great," that is when he was sent as commander-in-chief to Canada, he had already 
been six times wounded. He started from Brest on April, I 756, having chosen for 
his aide-de-camp a young captain of dragoons who was to prove a scarcely less 
efficient servant of France than himself. This strange cavalry man was the son of 
a Paris notary, and had first distinguished himself as an eloquent lawyer and 
barrister. With his taste for law he combined a taste for geometry (and had 
published a valuable work on "Integral Calculus"), military tastes which had 



182 State of New York 

caused him to enlist, diplomatic tastes which had led him to become a Secretary of 
Embassy in London, and other tastes, too, as yet undeveloped which were to be the 
cause of his enduring fame, for Montcalm's aide was none other than Louis Antoine 
de Bougainville, now mainly known as a navigator, the same who commanded a 
division under de Grasse in the War of Independence, circumnavigated the globe, 
and died very old, a member of the Institute and a senator of the French Empire, 
in 1814. 

Bougainville, as well as brave Levis, was vAth Montcalm at Ticonderoga, other- 
wise Fort Carillon. On the 8th of July, 1 758, the battle was fought, Montcalm 
having to oppose troops four times as numerous as his, having only eight days 
provisions, holding a position which more wisdom on the part of the assailants 
might have made desperate. But Lord Howe had been killed, Abercromby was 
not his equal. " They hesitate," Montcalm had written before the battle; " may-be 
I shall rout them." And so he did, a hard won battle, lasting from dawn to night, 
resulting in over two thousand dead remaining on the spot, but a complete and 
absolute victory by which French Canada was saved — for the time. 

A characteristic trait of Montcalm is that, if he profited by the mistakes of his 
adversaries, he rendered full justice to the valor they displayed in trying to obey 
the impossible orders of their chief, unflinchingly dying without a murmur, charging 
six times in the vain hope of capturing the French entrenchments. 

This was the proudest day in Montcalm's career: " This glorious day," he 
wrote to his wife, " does infinite honor to the valor of our battalions. I have no 
time to write more. I am well, my dearest, and I embrace you." More characteristic 
even was his official report in which he said: " M. de Levis, with several bullets 
in his clothes, and M. de Bourlamaque dangerously wounded, have had the greatest 
part in the glory of this day. The success is mainly due to the incredible valor of 
the officers and soldiers. As for me, I have had no other merit than to have 
happened to be the general of such valiant troops." 

The French are sometimes said to like to brag; great Shakespeare is somewhat 
hard on them on this account. The taunt may, however, well be disputed. It 
certainly does not apply to Montcalm, either living or dead; modest enough is what 
our books of reference (those from which the public at large gather their informa- 
tion) have to say concerning what happened on this spot, a century and a half ago. 
*' Ticonderoga," says the Crande Enc\)clopedie, " a picturesque site where are to 
be seen the ruins of a fort erected by the French, and which played a notable role 
in the War of Independence." Of the part it played in our own wars not a syllable. 
In Bouillet's " Historical Dictionary," neither the word nor the name " Fort 
Carillon " appears at all. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 183 



In his hour of triumph Montcalm had rendered full justice to his enemies. When 
he fell, his enemies nobly requited him; they gave him an equal share in the honors 
rendered to the memory of their own hero General Wolfe, and the same column 
commemorates in Quebec the similar virtues of the two opponents. On the tomb of 
Montcalm, in the Ursuline's convent at Quebec, one of the finest inscriptions ever 
devised for the sepulture of a hero has been engraved; it is in French and means: 
" Honor to Montcalm. Fate, while denying him victory, has recompensed him by 
a glorious death." A true insight into a hero's heart is revealed by the choice of 
that word " recompensed." This inscription is due to Lord Aylmer, Governor of 
Canada, in 1 83 1 . 

Years have passed ; on these happy shores guns have long been silent ; the feelings 
of the people represented around the ruins of Ticonderoga have changed ; the colonists 
of yore who had played an important part in the fight now belong to a great and 
independent nation, the United States, the friend of the former enemies, France and 
England, a trio of liberal nations. 

As for France and England themselves, they have, of late years, given to the 
world the example of settling all at once the whole series of their secular quarrels 
and difficulties, without even having recourse to arbitration. In medieval times, 
France and England have known the horrors of a Hundred Years War. The time 
is not far distant when they will be able to celebrate the completion of a Hundred 
Years Peace. (Applause.) 

Senator HiLL — Ladies and gentlemen, we have heard from the 
French Ambassador the sentiments of that great Republic whose achieve- 
ments are known to all men. Another great power across the sea is 
represented to-day in the person of its distinguished Ambassador, the 
author of " Tlie American Commonwealth," and other notable books, 
who will speak for Great Britain — the Right Honorable James Bryce. 

Ambassador BryCE — Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, Ladies and Cenilemen: 
I thank you for the honor which has been done me in inviting me here to represent 
my country at this most interesting celebration. Until I saw the ruined walls of 
the fort, until I saw how you were going to restore it, until I saw those most impressive 
relics which you have placed there and which are to be a museum for the future, 
I had hardly realized how interesting the spot was, how many associations cluster 
around it. It is a spot so beautiful that I am sure the Creator meant it for some- 
thing better than fighting. It is pleasant to think that as far as human eye can pierce 
the future, it will never see fighting again. (Applause.) 



184 State of New York 



I will not attempt, ladies and gentlemen, to emulate the very interesting historical 
sketch which has been given you by my friend and colleague, the Ambassador of 
France, but I will subscribe most heartily to all he has said about the brilliant 
discoveries of Samuel Champlain and about the noble character and achievement 
of the Marquis de Montcalm. I may say that as he has dwelt upon the literary 
and philosophical tastes of the Marquis de Montcalm, I should like to mention that 
the brother hero opposed to him in war, his equal in fame and in memory, who 
perished on the same day, the same field — our British hero. General Wolfe — was 
also a man of like culture and tastes ; and it is recorded that as he was rowing up the 
St. Lawrence on the night before the battle of the Plains of Abraham, one of his 
officers asked him whether he would rather win the battle to-morrow or have written 
Gray's Elegy, and he said, " I would rather have written Gray's Elegy than win 
any battle." Well, men like Wolfe are as rare as great poets, but it is interesting 
to think that these brother heroes were worthy in every way of one another. 

But I will not attempt, ladies and gentlemen, to follow my friend and colleague 
into any of these historical recollections, nor to sketch for you the great events 
which with small forces were fought out upon the waters of this very beautiful lake. 
A good deal was said about it yesterday by Governor Hughes and Mr. Seth Low, 
and a good deal more will be said to-day and to-morrow. For my part, I have not 
refreshed my recollection of these historical things very much, and I should be sorry 
to stand an examination in all the movements of the nations that at one time warred 
here. That there was a good deal of fighting I know, and although I would not 
like to say exactly who conducted the fighting nor to express any opinion on the 
merits of the contests, I will say that I am pretty sure it was not the Dutch 
(laughter), and I am perfectly certain it was not the Spaniards (laughter); and 
let me say for myself, ladies and gentlemen, that I am a man of peace, and I am 
here as a man of peace. I am here to look upon these moldering relics of the ruins 
of the fort and to thank God that they have never got to be used again. And here 
I am, in the midst of men of war. I see the two Governors of New York and 
Vermont, heads of large military forces of those two States. I see here behind me 
the Secretary of War, and I see close to me the Commander-in-Chief of the armies 
of the United States. He is going to address some remarks to you. Now, I 
wouldn't like to say anything that would differ from what he is going to say. There 
was a Roman philosopher who once being in the company of a Roman Emperor, 
and being challenged by him to express his opinion, said that he wouldn't like to 
argue with the master of forty legions. So I shall not be betrayed into any differences 
of opinion from the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States. 





VERY REV. THOMAS A. PREVEL 
OF ENGLAND 



COADJUTOR-BISHOP RICHARD H. 
NELSON OF ALBANY 





MGR. A. RACICOT 
Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal 



RT. REV. ARTHUR C. A. HALL 
Bishop of Vermont 



The Champlain Tercentenary 185 



Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to think that you are going to repair this 
fort and to have this museum. The best way in which you can evidence that war- 
like operations will never take place here again is by turning the fort to that use. 
If the three nations which strove here more than 300 years ago, and still later down 
to 1814, were able to give their voice and opinion to us to-day upon the morals of 
all this, what do you think they would say? Generally speaking, when we com- 
memorate great events, we commemorate them not only for admiration but also for 
education; but if the voices of those three nations were to say anything to us to-day, 
they would say: ** We admire those heroes of the past, we admire the devotion 
and self-sacrifice that our men poured out their lives in the cause of the country that 
they were sent to fight for — but never do it again." (Applause.) And I think 
that will be for all of us what we will try to carry away from this commemoration — 
thankfulness that we shall never do it again, and that the era of peace has dawned 
upon the nations. (Applause.) 

Governor HuGHES — Fellow Citizens: The supreme moment of the 
exercises of this day has now arrived. I have the honor of introducing 
to you a great American man who honors his high office, the President of 
the United States. 

Remarks of President Taft 

The President — Governor Hughes, A/p FelloTv Citizens: As I stood here 
listening to the interesting remarks of the Ambassador from France and the Ambas- 
sador from Great Britain, I could not but congratulate the United States on the 
implied compliment that those two countries had paid to her, by sending here as the 
personal representatives of their respective Chief Executives men so distinguished in 
literature, in history, in statesmanship and in diplomacy. Another thing that came to 
me as I sat here and looked at this embattled hill was that the State of New York 
and the State of Vermont were most fortunate in being able to find a place upon 
which three nations could celebrate the past with entire consistency and with great joy. 
(Applause.) Because, exercising proper discrimination, they can find deeds of 
valor and success for each nation on every spot about this lake. 

Champlain was a man whom all nations can honor. He is not a man with 
respect to whose history you have to pass over something in silence. All his life 
could bear the closest examination, and he brings out in the strongest way those 
wonderful qualities shown in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries by Spaniard, 
Englishman, Frenchman, Portuguese, who braved those dreadful terrors of the sea, 
circumnavigated the globe in little cockleshells and carried the standard of the then 



186 State of New York 



civilization into the farthest forests and into the dangers of the most distant tropics. 
I am a good sailor. I do not mind the waves at sea, but I should think those that 
did mind them would not believe the story of Magellan, or Champlain, or Cortez, 
of those who came over in things that seem no larger than skiffs to-day. 

I think it is well for us to go back through the history of the nations in order that 
our own heads, a little swelled with modern progress, may be diminished a bit in 
the proper appreciation of what was done by nations before us under conditions that 
seem to limit the possibility of human achievement, but limitations that were over- 
come by the bravery, the courage and the religious faith of nations that preceded us 
in developing the world, to Montcalm and Wolfe, two great characters, back to 
whom you trace the whole history of Lower Canada. It is true Wolfe conquered 
Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. But there is still in all the region of Lower 
Canada a population purely French, a population industrious. God-fearing, earnest 
and loyal to the flag under whose government they live. (Applause.) That fact 
is a compliment not only to the far-seeing statesmanship of the English colonial 
statesmen who framed the government under which they live, but it is a compliment 
to the persistent industrial, domestic virtues of the French nation. For sixteen years 
it was my good fortune to go to Murray Bay in Canada for the summer. There is 
a limitation now upon the Presidential office that prevents it. But while there I 
learned some things and one was that while the Murray Highlanders, and other 
soldiers of England conquered on the Plains of Abraham, quite a number of those 
soldiers went down the St. Lawrence River and were induced to settle on the French 
seigniories that lie some miles below Quebec. There were Blackburns and War- 
rens and MacNiels and Fraziers and Nairns, and all the Scotch names that bring 
back the memory of the Murray Highlanders. And what did they do? They had 
the sense to marry French women. And what happened? That country is full 
of Blackburns, MacNiels, Warrens, Nairns and Fraziers, and they don't any of 
them speak a word of English. (Laughter.) There are other ways of conquering 
a people than merely by guns. (Laughter.) 

This valley in which we are, in the 300 years since it was discovered by Cham- 
plain, has furnished almost as much of a battle-ground for the three nations and the 
Indians who were on all sides as Belgium in Europe. And one does not have to 
seek far for the reason. If you will read the account given by Benedict Arnold of 
his attempt to reach Quebec through Maine you will understand why everybody 
else that went that way went by Lake Champlain. (Laughter.) The truth is it 
was the only passageway, and as the St. Lawrence on the one hand offered a great 
place for settlement, the Hudson on the other, and all the Atlantic coast, in order 
to reach the two this was the passageway, and here were fought the battles con- 
tended for 200 years, and as we may now say, never to recur. They did not occur 



The Champlain Tercentenary 187 



in the Civil War, I believe, except a little venture by some rash representatives of 
the Confederacy, who tried to break a bank in St. Albans, but with that exception 
we have to go back to the War of 1812 for the use of this as a battle-ground. 
I echo and emphasize the statement of the two ambassadors and repeat their prayer 
that never again may this great valley be given a name in history by reason of its 
being the seat of bloody war. (Applause.) 

The President's address concluded the literary exercises at Ticon- 
deroga. Indian pageants and fireworks along the lake front followed, 
and thus were the thousands of visitors entertained far into the night. 



V. WEDNESDAY. JULY 7: AT CLIFF HAVEN. PLATTS- 
BURGH. PLATTSBURGH BARRACKS AND 
HOTEL CHAMPLAIN. 



V. AT CLIFF HAVEN. PLATTSBURGH. PLATTSBURGH 
BARFIACKS AND HOTEL CHAMPLAIN 

THE EXERCISES of July 7th opened with a notable morning gathering 
at Cliff Haven, the Catholic Summer School of America. The 
grounds of this institution are high above the waters of the lake and 
with their natural setting of cedars and pines are very beautiful. In pre- 
paration for the eminent guests of the day, four rustic arches had been 
erected. It was recalled that the first of such arches had been put in 
place on the occasion of a visit from President McKinley; a second arch, 
the work of Mr. Charles A. Webber, was designated as the Taft arch. 
Under it the President of the United States and other guests passed on 
their way to the auditorium, where, at 10 o'clock, the exercises were 
opened by the singing of "America " superbly swelled by the voices of 
many thousands. The Rev. Dr. Dennis J. McMahon, president of the 
school, presided and welcomed the guests in the following words : 

Dr. Dennis J. McMahon — Honored Guests, Dear Friends: It has been 
the pleasure of this institution in the twelve years of its residence in this part of the 
world to have as guests the three great Presidents that have ruled in the seat at 
Washington — the martyred McKinley, the intrepid Roosevelt, and the calm, 
judicial Taft. (Applause.) 

Our motto, '* God and Country," is what we live for, what we strive to attain, 
even to the highest. We have to-day in our faith the representative of God, who 
might indeed be our spokesman, but whose presence speaks the words of loyalty 
and of respect for authority that ever will be the ideal of this Catholic Summer 
School. (Applause.) 

This is an institution incorporated and looked after by the Regents of the State 
of New York, and the representative or high official of those Regents is with us 
to-day. (Applause.) A year ago it was our pleasure, our unbounded pleasure, 
to welcome for the first time the Executive of the State of New York (applause), 
and we feel that the sterling character that has stood out amidst the difficulties of his 
career has learned something of our work, learned more of our dealings during the 

191 



192 State of New York 



year that has passed since that time ; and therefore to him, with full confidence, with 
unswerving faith, we ask that he will present to the highest official of this land of 
ours that we love so well, the respect that we ever have for authority, the love that 
we have for those who rule over us under God. (Applause.) 

We pray God that he may direct the steps and strengthen the manhood of those 
who rule over us. This is our wish in presenting our beloved Governor Hughes to 
make the address of welcome. (Applause.) 

Governor HuGHES — Mr. President, Cardinal Gibbons, Reverend Fathers, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: If Champlain could only have seen you! (Laughter.) 
There is no brighter spot in the administrative work of the past two years, or rather, 
there was no greater delight in the administrative pleasures of the past two years 
than the visit to Cliff Haven and the opportunity to meet with those engaged in the 
important work of this school. It probably has passed from your minds, but never 
shall I forget the beautiful August day when I stood for the first time upon this 
platform and received your greetings. I then wished you godspeed and you in turn 
invited me to come again officially. That was not easy. (Laughter). Your 
reverend leader expressed the hope that at the time of the celebration of the Ter- 
centenary of the Champlain discovery, I might be here as Chief Executive. It was 
not an easy thing to accept that invitation, but I did it. (Applause.) And it has 
added greatly to the enjoyment of this week to have the opportunity to come here 
upon the errand which engages me to-day. 

Champlain's discovery is peculiarly interesting to us all because of the faith that 
inspired him. He was a great soldier before he took the voyage of discovery; he 
was one of the most loyal, effective, courageous soldiers of France, but even above 
the standard of his king, commanding his first and undying loyalty, was the banner 
of the cross. (Great applause.) Faith inspired him as he came across the waters 
to him unknown and braved the dangers of the North Atlantic. He had little idea 
what the future would bring to this valley, of charm and of rare beauty, but he had, 
along with the courage, something — you might say, the bravado, of the man of 
war, with the piety of the cloister; and he longed to see the armies of the Lord 
enlarged. That was the chief object of his coming here. It turned out differently 
from what he expected, but still he would not be dissatisfied, because along our 
different paths and coming from different centers of religious influence and with 
varying conceptions, we are all really moving forward according to the divine pro- 
gramme of progress, that we may realize in this fair land, the highest ideals of 
humanity by establishing the reign of God on earth. (Applause.) 

And without any thought of derogation, and in this time of peace, realizing the 
splendid illustrations of their respective races, as given us by France and England, 
we are still glad that neither flag indicates sovereignty here, but that the people of 




MGR. E. P. ROY 

Auxiliary Bishop of Quebec 





CARDINAL GIBBONS 



^ 



t 



u 



REV. p. J. BARRETT 




RT. REV. THOMAS M. A. BURKE 



The Champlain Tercentenary 193 



the United States forever control this important highway, (Applause.) Here is 
the land of faith and at the same time of tolerance; here is the land of sentiment and 
of devotion to a far greater degree than most people think, and at the same time 
here is the land free from bigotry, where each man recognizes the right of his 
neighbor to serve God according to his own light. (Applause.) And it gives me 
the profoundest pleasure to present to you this morning a man who not only officially 
represents a nation devoted to these ideals, who not only in his person stands for the 
authority of the people and the dignity of a great trust, but who in his own breadth 
of vision, in his judicial temperament, in his admirable poise, in his intense love of 
justice, personifies to us all that which we would have the head of this nation repre- 
sent. (Great applause.) 

Before the prolonged applause which greeted this introduction had 
subsided, and ere the President could speak, six little girls in white 
marched quickly to the platform, the foremost one, with a courtesy, 
presenting him with a bouquet on behalf of the school. President Taft 
acknowledged the gift by taking the child's hand while he bowed his 
thanks to the audience which renewed its applause. He spoke as follows : 

President Taft at Cliff Haven 

President TafT — Cardinal Gibbons, Governor Hughes, Doctor McMahon 
and My Fellow Citizens of the Catholic Summer School: Governor Hughes and I 
are going through these three or four days delivering speeches at each other 
(laughter) and expressing our opinions of each other (laughter) in a way that will 
enable us when we get through to do it with greater facility (laughter). The truth 
is that the gift of eloquence and speech which Governor Hughes has needs no prac- 
tice, but I have to have a little. (Laughter.) 

I would be without that which makes a man if I did not appreciate to the full the 
kindly words of your distinguished Governor, and if I did not congratulate the State 
of New York in having a Governor who represents the highest ideals. (Applause.) 
One is almost carried off his feet before such an audience. There is something in 
the atmosphere that suggests a flying machine (laughter), as if you were all so full 
of joy that that element in you could raise you up. And that is the way it ought to 
be, and I congratulate you that such is the feeling. The combination of work and 
pleasure, the cultivation of health on the one hand and of intellect on the other, and 
of religious faith above all (applause), under such beautiful surroundings, is cal- 
culated to make everyone enthusiastic, and I share that enthusiasm to the full. 
14 



194 State of New York 



I am not a Catholic, but I have in the last ten years had a great deal to do with 
the Catholic Church. (Applause.) My lot did not carry me into a part of the world 
that made me as familiar with the French explorers, the French leaders of civiliza- 
tion like Champlain, as it did into the region of those leaders that came from Spain; 
into the Philippines, where the influence, the same influence that carried Champlain 
here, and the same ideals that controlled him, controlled men equally brave, and in 
certain respects more successful — Magellan, Legaspi, who came out to the Philip- 
pines, and with four or five Augustinian monks, converted to Christianity that entire 
archipelago now having some seven or eight million souls, and then perhaps 500,000, 
the only community, the only people, in the entire Orient that to-day as a people are 
Christians. (Applause.) 

There is on the Monetta, the great public square facing the ocean in Manila, a 
statue carved by a great Spanish sculptor, Karol, in which there are two figures, 
Legaspi holding the standard of Spain, and with his sword drawn; and behind him 
Erdinator, a Rigeletto monk, holding aloft behind all the cross. And there is in 
that statue such movement, such force, such courage, that I used to like, even in the 
hot days of Manila, to stand in front of it and enjoy it, as I thought I got the spirit 
that the sculptor had tried to put in there, of loyalty to country and faith in God. 
(Applause.) 

I think we are reaching a point in this country where we are very much more 
tolerant of everything and of everybody in the past and where we are giving justice 
where justice ought to be given. We are no longer cherishing those narrow 
prejudices that come from denominational bigotry, and we are able to recognize in 
the past those great heroes of any religious Christian faith and appreciate the virtues 
that were expected to follow the examples that they have made for us. (Applause.) 
Religious tolerance is rather a modern invention. (Laughter.) Those of us of 
Puritan ancestry have been apt to think that we were the inventors of religious 
tolerance. Well, as a matter of fact, what we were in favor of, if I can speak for 
Puritan ancestry, was having a right to worship God as we pleased and having 
everybody else worship God in the same way. (Laughter.) But we have worked 
that all out now (applause), and there has been a great change, I am sure His 
Eminence the Cardinal will agree with me, even in the last twenty-six years. 

I have had personal evidence of it in some of the work that we had to do in the 
Philippines. Fifty years ago, if it had been proposed to send a representative of 
the Government to the Vatican to negotiate and settle matters arising in a country 
like the Philippines between the Government and the Roman Catholic Church, it 
would have given rise to the severest condemnation and criticism on the part of those 
who would have feared some diplomatic connection between the Government and the 
Vatican, contrary to our traditions. But within the last ten years that has been 



The Champlain Tercentenary 195 



done with the full concurrence of all religious denominations, believing that the way 
to do things is to do them directly, and when a matter is to be settled, that it should 
be settled with the head of the Church, who has authority to act. (Applause.) 
And so it fell to my lot, my dear friends. (Applause.) And in that respect, just by 
good luck, I came to be an exception which perhaps will stand for many years, as 
the sole exception, of being a representative of the United States at the Vatican. 
(Applause.) And there I had the great pleasure of meeting that distinguished 
statesman and Pontiff, Leo the XIII (applause), a man of 92, whom I expected 
to find rather a lay figure directed by the councils of the cardinals than one active in 
control of the Church. But I was most pleasantly disappointed, for even at 92 he 
was able to withstand an address of mine of twenty minutes. (Laughter.) And to 
catch the points of that address, and to respond in a speech of some fifteen minutes^ 
showing how fully he appreciated the issue that there was and its importance. We 
did not succeed in bringing about exactly the agreement which was asked, and he 
realized that; but he was as full of friendly enthusiasm for the settlement of the 
issue as was possible; and after two audiences which I had the honor of holding 
with him, at the close of the second one he said, " You haven't got exactly what you 
want in exactly the way you want it, but," said he, " I am going to send a repre- 
sentative of mine to the Philippines, with instructions to see that the matter is settled 
justly in accordance with the wishes of the Government of the United States " 
(applause), and it was so settled, and I am gratified to say that every question 
between the Church and the Stale in the Philippine Islands, which were so closely 
united that it seemed almost impossible to make a separation of the two, as it ought 
to be made, under our Constitution — that every question has been settled fairly 
and justly to both sides, and that no bad taste or feeling of injustice remains on either 
side with respect to those questions. (Applause.) 

And now, my dear friends, I ought to talk about Champlain, and I could talk 
somewhat about him, because I appreciate as highly as anyone can, those motives 
that governed him and his high character as a man and the obstacles that he had to 
overcome; but when I get up to talk on any subject I am a little bit in the attitude 
of the doctor who could cure fits and that is all he could cure, and so he wanted 
to throw his patients into that condition. (Laughter). I can only talk about the 
Philippines, and that is what I have done. (Laughter and applause). But I hope 
that that subject has some application to the thoughts of the morning. I thank you. 
my dear friends. I thank the reverend fathers, and His Eminence the Cardinal, for 
the cordial reception that you have given to the civil head of New York and to the 
civil head of the nation. (Great applause.) 



196 State of New York 

Dr. Dennis J. McMahon — His Eminence will say a few closing 
words : 

Cardinal GiBBONS — Mr. President, Governor Hughes: I do not intend, 
indeed, to inflict any additional penance on the Chief Executive of the Nation nor 
His Excellency the Governor of the State by any extended remarks because they 
are passing through a most severe ordeal at the present time, and if I am not very 
much mistaken when this week has passed away, the avoirdupois of the President 
will not be quite as great. But we all treasure up in our hearts a most profound 
sense of gratitude for the presence of the President and of the Governor of the State 
of New York, and we are thankful to them not only for their physical presence; 
they might have come and bowed to you all and retired afterwards; it might be a 
formal presentation; but they have fired us all by the beautiful sentiments that they 
have uttered on this occasion. (Applause.) And if it were possible, they have 
filled us with a greater love for God and love for country. Every word was an 
inspiration. And, Mr. President and Mr. Governor, when you and I have passed 
away the rising generation will treasure up in their hearts and in their memories the 
beautiful sentiments that you have uttered to-day. (Applause.) You tell us what is 
true, that we have indeed liberty in the true sense of the word, that is to say, every 
man can worship God according to the dictates of his conscience and no man can 
make another have the same 'doxy that he has himself. Every man has a right to 
think for himself and to worship God according to the light that God has given to 
him. Here, thank God, we have liberty without license and authority without 
despotism, where our government holds over us the aegis of its protection without 
interfering with us in the God-given rights of conscience. (Applause.) 

The President has alluded to the part he has taken in reconciling matters in the 
Philippine Islands; he could say in more senses than one, both physical and intel- 
lectually, in the words of Virgil, *' Quorum pars magna fui," for the leading part in 
that memorable transaction that passed over to us those islands of the Philippines 
without any tumult, without any disagreement with the Holy Leo; and I may men- 
tion here on this occasion, that it was my happy privilege to have the honor and the 
deep pleasure of dining with the President when he was on his way to the Holy Leo 
and to the Vatican. I shall never forget that interesting occasion; and now I beg 
in my own name, and in the name of the president of the Summer School and of all 
its officers, to return our hearty thanks to the President of the United States and the 
Governor of the State. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 197 



After the remarks of Cardinal Gibbons, the audience joined in a 
closing song *' Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," and then dispersed. 

The President, the foreign ambassadors, Cardinal Gibbons, and other 
distinguished guests, were entertained at luncheon at the residence of 
Hon. Smith M. Weed. After the luncheon hour President Taft and 
guests were driven to Pittsburgh Barracks where a large reviewing 
and speakers' stand had been erected. Members of the Legislature 
and other guests went by special train from Hotel Champlain to Platts- 
burgh Barracks, where was held a parade and review of military organiza- 
tions including the regular troops and also the New York National Guard 
encamped there. The great parade-ground, perhaps the finest in 
America, with its setting of woods and lake and distant mountains, made 
a striking picture. Life and spirit were given to it by the thousands of 
spectators, the movement of the smartly uniformed troops, stepping to the 
strains of martial music, with steeds prancing to the bugle calls; the 
waving of banners and the boom of cannon. Especially were the foreign 
spectators much impressed and delighted. The chairman of this occasion 
was the Hon. H. Wallace Knapp, chairman of the New York Com- 
mission, who introduced the first speaker, the Governor of New York, in 
the following words: 

Chairman Knapp — Discovered three hundred years ago, this lake 
and the adjoining valleys early became the great field of strife between 
the forces contending for the national supremacy of a mighty continent. 
Likewise, it was one of the great battle-grounds from which a new nation 
arose, stable and firm. Thus, as we meet to-day to commemorate the 
three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain, it is 
particularly fitting that the occasion should be honored by the repre- 
sentatives of the great nations of the world. This is a bi-State celebration 
of the States of New York and Vermont, and we have with us the two 
distinguished Governors of these States, and it gives me great pleasure to 
present to you a man who has the admiration and the utmost respect of 
every citizen of our State — New York's most distinguished Governor, 
Charles E. Hughes. 



198 State of New York 



Governor Hughes — Mr. Chairman, Mr, President, Felloiv Citizens: 
Whether I turn to the right or to the left, whether I address those here or there, I 
find beauty and inspiration. (Applause.) I have only a few words to say; for 
during this week I have been the first burnt offering on every occasion (laughter) 
and my office is to accustom you, after the witnessing of this magnificent spectacle, 
to the sound of the human voice in order that those who later will seriously address 
you may have an audience prepared to greet their efforts. 

On Monday at old Crown Point we celebrated the discovery of Champlain amid 
scenes which were suggestive of the strife between the rival Indian races, the struggle 
between the European powers contending for supremacy, and the eventual conflict 
between the mother country and her colonies. Yesterday, still more impressively, 
were celebrated the historic events connected with Fort Ticonderoga ; but to-day 
fittingly marks the climax of our celebration, because more completely here than else- 
where have been exhibited the amity and concord uniting the nations that take part 
in this commemoration. (Applause.) How pleasant it is to think that we 
meet jointly, France, England and the United States, upon the field of Plattsburgh, 
to witness this parade of arms in happy sympathy. (Applause.) It is proper at 
this time, and there may be no other occasion equally suitable, that I should express, 
as Chief Executive of the State, my gratification at the successful issue of the labors 
of the Commission, which have made this celebration possible. Men attached by 
sentiment, by birth and long association to this favored valley, have made this cele- 
bration the chief desire of their hearts and the burden of their waking hours for 
many months. They have labored together that you might not only enjoy a rare 
spectacle, but that you might be inspired by a worthy commemoration of the events 
in your country's history. Amid famous guests and distinguished orators who have 
delivered addresses of rare literary quality, let us stop for a moment to do just honor 
to the men who have represented us in this enterprise — the gentlemen of the Commis- 
sion — I give them my thanks. (Applause.) 

To-day we are at peace with all the world — even with Vermont. (Applause.) 
How glad I have been that for three days we have been able here to conduct so 
satisfactorily the part of New York, even compelling our rival across the water to 
do us the courtesy of his presence and to give us a friendly word of cheer. And 
how I dread the awful morrow when we shall listen to the claims of our sister State. 
(Laughter.) To-day we stand here in the pride and pomp of the Empire State; 
but to-morrow your Governor will tread softly and humbly amid the Green Moun- 
tain boys. (Laughter.) They have Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, and they 
don't think we have much. I don't know what Champlain discovered in the territory 
that is in Vermont. I have had all I can do to find out what he discovered on the 
New York shore. (Laughter.) I am filled now with abounding gratitude that he 



The Champlain Tercentenary 199 



didn't stop at any more places (laughter), and for the first time in my hfe I am glad 
that the population of this valley is no greater and that there are no more rival com- 
munities to extend the period of rival celebration. 

But as I have said, to-day we are at peace with all the world, enjoying the finest 
fruits of the discovery; and as we look back through the perspective of the centuries, 
we find that of all the names associated with this country — with this particular 
valley signalized by the events which we are commemorating — perhaps the fore- 
most are those of the first chieftain and the last victor. And I will couple, for your 
remembrance on this occasion, in historic Pittsburgh, the names of these two — 
one of the Old World, the other of the New — Samuel Champlain and Thomas 
Macdonough. (Applause.) Separated by 200 years, they were much alike. 
Each a distinguished soldier, each knowing the perils and hardships of war, each 
rejoicing in the delights of victory, each a pure-hearted patriot. Champlain served his 
country, served his King, and bowed before his God. Thomas Macdonough, before 
the contest in the lake by Cumberland Head, in the War of 1812, the last engage- 
ment in these waters — the last struggle that this valley has known — bowed his knee 
before the God of Battles more anxious that he should do right and serve loyally the 
flag that floated o'er him than that he should win any individual renown. Mac- 
donough, called to service here as a young man, already had achieved distinction, 
and in his skill on these waters, in his preparedness for every emergency, in his match- 
less strategy, and his final victory, he raised the fame of American seamanship and 
naval power higher than it was raised by any man prior to the Spanish War. 
(Applause.) 

It has been said, by the late President of the United States, I believe, that no one 
in our annals has contributed more to American fame. How pleasant it is that we 
search even the scenes of bloodshed for characters to admire and that ancient enemies 
join in just tribute to those who so bitterly fought on the scene of historic contests. 
(Applause.) There can be no enmity in the future between France and the United 
States, or between England and the United States, and our secure bond of friend- 
ship is not to be found in treaties, but in the sincere regard that the people of each 
of these nations have for what is strong and brave and pure in the people of the other. 
We are bound by the ties of human sympathy and human fellowship and the thought 
of war becomes horrible because we admire our friends of other nations too much 
to want to fight them. (Applause.) We love our fellow men more than we did, 
and we can go back with our British friends to the battle of Plattsburgh; we can go 
back with them to Ticonderoga — French and English can talk over the campaigns 
of Montcalm and of Wolfe — desirous only to pay the just meed of praise, solicitous 
for historical verity, thinking of the strife of the past only that we may accentuate 
the concord of the present. (Applause.) So I link together the pure-minded 



200 State of New York 



Champlain, who first saw these waters, the man of God as well as of battle, the man 
who loved his fellow men — although circumstances and the standards of his age 
made him frequently shed their blood — and the pure-minded American patriot who 
saw the last of the bloody harvest on this field of our own times — Macdonough — 
and thus we knit up the past and the present, and because the past is what it is, we 
look forward to the future for the carrying out of the divine plan, and for our 
progress toward the far off divine event, with absolute confidence and trust in 
Almighty God. 

Chairman Knapp — After the remarks by Governor Hughes, there is 
little to say regarding Vermont, except to present a man who has made his 
own way in life and who, by honesty of purpose, has endeared himself to, 
and obtained the utmost confidence of the citizens of his State. I present 
the Governor of the State of Vermont, George H. Prouty. 

Governor Prouty — Mr. Chairman, Your Excellenc}), Mr. President, Ladies 
and Gentlemen: I think that the last speaker said that he had been offered as a 
burnt offering for three days. Well, now, if that is correct, what do you think of 
me being offered every time after his speech? I can assure you, however, that 
whatever speech I make to-day will be a very short one, because I realize full well 
what you have come here to-day to hear, and I do not intend in any way to deprive 
you of any of the pleasure which you expect, and rightfully. I do simply come here 
to-day as the representative of a sister State taking part in this great celebration, to 
extend to you the good wishes and the love and the respect of the State of Vermont. 
(Applause.) And that I do now with my whole heart, Mr. Governor. 

You have an extremely modest Governor. He said that to-morrow he would 
tread softly. He is modest, but even his modesty will not allow him to tread softly 
after he receives the good wishes of the people of the State of Vermont, as he will 
to-morrow. (Applause.) 

This celebration is in commemoration of a great event, and you will hear of that 
later, but it is an event which to the two States of New York and Vermont is of 
great moment, and we should consider what it means to us. We celebrated only 
last Sunday and Monday a great day of independence. If it had not been for men 
like Samuel Champlain and others of his character and nature, we should not have 
been here to celebrate that day, and it seemed extremely fitting at that time that the 
two events should be celebrated as they were. We can only gain the benefit from 
this celebration by remembering something about what it meant to us that these men 
should have done what they did in the past, and we ought to-day to draw the lesson 



The Champlain Tercentenary 201 



from those events which will be of benefit to us. Those matters I am sure will be 
brought to your attention. 

Yesterday it was my pleasure to attend the celebration at Ticonderoga. At that 
time I took away considerable of the State of New York. To-day I shall take 
away with me something else of much greater value: I shall take away the inspiration 
which comes from an audience like this; I shall take away with me the inspiration 
which comes from feeling that the people of the great Empire State of New York 
realize what this celebration means; and that they are going to try in the future to 
gain the greatest benefit from it. The State of Vermont thanks the State of New 
York for all it has done in assisting in this celebration. I believe it was our good 
privilege to have thought of this and to have first suggested it. From that time on 
this State has given us its best assistance, and I wish to thank you. Governor Hughes, 
for the State of Vermont for what you have done. I want also to thank the Com- 
mission of the State of New York for what they have done in working together wath 
us to get up this great celebration. As I said before, I am not going to take your 
time, because you have something much better to listen to, but I do want again to 
extend the good wishes of the State of Vermont, and I want you to remember that 
while we came over here once or twice when we were not welcome, that we have 
forgotten all those things, that there are no hard feelings and if you will come to us 
to-morrow and in the future we will try to show you that that is the fact. 
(Applause.) 

Chairman Knapp — In the early history of this country this body 
of water marked the line of cleavage between English influence on the 
south and French influence to the north. But for one hundred and fifty 
years we have been drafting upon the citizenship of French descent in 
the building up of this country ; and, as we meet here to-day, no man can 
forget that it was the French voyager who discovered this lake, and that 
in the succeeding years France — whether under a monarchial or a repub- 
lican form of government — has been the friend of the United States. I 
therefore take pleasure in presenting to you its present Ambassador, 
Monsieur Jusserand. 

Ambassador JusSERAND — Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: My chief object in addressing you is to express the gratitude 
of France for the admirable fashion in which you have honored the memory of one 
of her sons, Samuel de Champlain. (Applause.) 



202 State of New York 



The occasion is truly a memorable one. Your Commission has done wonders, and 
this brilliant assemblage is the best token of the grateful admiration preserved in this 
land for one who discovered one of its most beautiful spots. 

You have here the Governors of the two States, you have my friend the British 
Ambassador, and then you have one whom you all love and admire, and so do I, 
President Taft. (Applause.) It is particularly appropriate that President Taft 
should be here to commemorate the anniversary of Champlain, because he, too, has 
in his great heart what I may call a colonial feeling. He knows what it is to plant 
the flag of a country in a far off land and to try to improve that land. (Applause.) 
I do not know — I hope he had — I do not know whether before yesterday or the 
day before yesterday he had read the complete works of Champlain (laughter), but 
I am sure that the spirit of Champlain, and what there was best in him, is within the 
bosom of President Taft. (Applause.) 

Champlain, the first time he came over, felt that the man who lived in the land, 
whoever he was, deserved help and friendship; that, whoever he was, he had some 
good qualities, and that those good qualities should be developed; that that man 
should not be destroyed, but should be raised. That feeling Champlain had, that 
feeling has your President. And there are people over the water, in a very distant 
archipelago, who know it and feel it and who, for centuries, will bless his name. 
(Applause.) 

Another great quality Champlain had: he hated a useless quarrel, a useless war. 
When he became the friend of the Hurons and the Algonquins, and made war on 
the Iroquois, a subject that is going to be treated in full by the former Secretary of 
War, and former Secretary of State, your honored Senator, Elihu Root — when 
he made that war, he did it because he could not help it. Had he not had for his 
friends the Hurons and the Algonquins, he would have had no friends at all, and 
when the Hurons came to him and asked him to assist them, he said he would, 
because they had been helpful to him. He asked some of his followers whether 
they would come, but only a very few found it pleasant, only two, in fact, went ; the 
rest stayed behind. And what happened? The Hurons said, these are not men; 
they can make war only on beavers. Champlain wanted the people who had stood 
as friends by him to know that in his turn, in their hour of need he would stand as 
a friend by them. 

But on an occasion more memorable than any other, Champlain showed he would 
have no useless quarrels, for when he first discovered this lake, we know from unim- 
peachable testimony, that he took care to look both ways at once, at the New York 
side and Vermont side, and so he discovered the two and at the same moment. 
(Laughter and applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 203 



For my addressing you as I do to-day, one reason is that I represent in this 
country the land that gave birth to Champlain ; another is that in this briUiant assembly 
so many of these for whose ancestors he founded Quebec are present, and that I 
have one particular advantage and between them and me there is one thing in com- 
mon, and a thing of immense value: the same language was taught us at our cradle. 

(The Ambassador then addressed the audience in French.) 

Before withdrawing I beg to renew, in the name of the French Republic, the 
expression of our gratitude for what has been done in this friendly American land 
for the memory of that great Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain. (Applause.) 

Chairman Knapp — There are few historic spots where, after two 
centuries of alternating struggle, three great nations can join in com- 
memorating its history, each with the feeling that there they have had 
honorable and glorious distinction in contributing to the eventual creation 
of a great republic; and we are happy to have with us to-day, as the 
representative of the country which, even amid the acrimony of revolu- 
tionary struggle, we were pleased to call the Mother Country, so dis- 
tinguished a gentleman as the present Ambassador of Great Britain. 
Known to Americans first as a man in the world of letters, we have since 
come to love him as a most fitting representative of the great English 
Nation — Ambassador Bryce. 

Ambassador Bryce — Mr. President, Your Excellencies: When I was asked 
to come to Plattsburgh, I was told that at the parade I might be asked to offer a few 
remarks. I intended to offer those very few remairks after the formal historical 
address which was to be delivered by your Senator, Mr. Root, and I thought I 
should find in Mr. Root's formal historical address some text on which to speak to 
you, because I knew that he was going to make an address upon a very interesting 
and important subject, and I felt certain that I should find something in that address 
from which I should differ. (Laughter.) Now, unfortunately, Mr. Root is going 
to have the last word, and I shall not be able to criticize any of his historical views 
as to what was done by Great Britain in North America. But I have got one 
remark — I won't keep you, for there are many speakers to follow — I have got 
one remark I want to make. Through the celebration, ladies and gentlemen, the 
thought that has been rising to my mind has been this: as we have been commemorat- 
ing the events of 300, of 200 and of 1 00 years ago, what will people find a hundred 
years hence to commemorate that we have done? Who will commemorate this 



204 State of New York 



generation, and what will they think of it? There are many things that we think we 
are doing. We believe that we are enriching the world with inventions and dis- 
coveries and changing the face of human life and society, but there is only one thing 
that I shall mention to-day. The beginning of the 20th century seems to me to 
be the time when the old national feelings of animosity have been effaced, and I 
think there is nothing that this generation should more desire to be remembered by 
than that it was the beginning of good feeling and friendship between nations that 
once were divided by animosity and hatred. 

From this platform, gentlemen, we can see far off blue mountains that rise on the 
frontier of Canada. Even less than a century ago hostile forces marched from 
Canada here, and to-day you have seen Canadian regiments march upon this parade 
ground. I do not know whether they have ever marched before in the presence of 
the President of the United States, but you have given them a welcome which came 
so fully from the heart that I desire, on behalf of Britain and Canada, to thank you 
for it. 

Ladies and gentlemen, there were two martial airs that have stirred the hearts of 
Englishmen and Scotchmen for many a year played by those bands. One of them 
was the air of the " British Grenadiers," to the strains of which the British army has 
fought on many fields in every part of the world, and the other was an air which 
commemorates the days when Englishmen and Scotchmen warred with one another 
and bore a hatred to one another more bitter than any we ever bore to any con- 
tinental country. And just as Englishmen and Scotchmen now are knit by bonds 
of the closest friendship and have the same national airs, so now Canadians and 
Americans can welcome and love one another, and can live with a friendship and a 
mutual appreciation which makes the life of each more precious and better than it 
was. And we can go into Canada to-day and Canadians can come here, and each 
can feel that they are welcome guests. 

Mr. President, you know Canada well, and you are already loved and respected 
there. I can tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that when your regiments go into 
Canada, you will receive a welcome as warm and hearty there as you have given to 
our regiments to-day. (Applause.) And just as men of French speech and men 
of English speech live happily together in Canada, as my friend, the French 
Ambassador, has so happily said, so for centuries and forever to come, may the 
people of Canada and the people of the United States live side by side, dying in 
friendship with one another and remembering their old animosities only to be thankful 
to Almighty God, who has moved them far from us, never to return. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 205 

Chairman KnaPP — The days of strife are past. Three hundred 
years ago came the first Frenchman from Canada. This lake bears his 
name. Since then thousands have come to dwell among us as a part of 
this great nation, and to-day our brethren across the border join with us 
in commemoration of historical events. As representative of the Canadian 
Government, I present the Honorable Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster 
General of Canada. 

Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux — Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: I am only at the beginning of my troubles. This is my first speech, 
and I was not aware until a few moments ago that I would have to speak. How- 
ever, being of French descent, I can afford to say a few words. Since my arrival 
in the beautiful city of Plattsburgh, I have not been able to see the difference between 
American territory and Canadian territory, and I do not know why we are treaty 
making at the present time. (Applause.) It seems to me that this is as glorious 
weather as we have in Canada across the border; it seems to me that the people I 
meet here to-day are just as good, just as nice, just as hospitable and courteous as 
those you meet in Canada, and I meet Englishmen and Frenchmen, sterling English- 
men like our worthy Ambassador, Mr. James Bryce, and superb types of Frenchmen 
like the Ambassador of France, M. Jusserand. This is a good Canadian combina- 
tion, French and English, living in peace, harmony and concord, after having fought 
so many years ago. But I say that I am in Canada, because looking at your very dis- 
tinguished statesman, the President of the United States, I find a neighbor from 
Murray Bay in the Province of Quebec. (Laughter and applause.) Yes, and I 
wish to warn my American friends that if after four years — no, after eight years — 
(great applause) or twelve years, or sixteen years (laughter) — if then the cares of 
office have made that great statesman thin and frail (laughter) send him back to 
Canada; send him back to the Province of Quebec at Murray Bay, and we will 
then after a few months of golfing with his charming family send him back to you as 
stout, as hearty, as hardy a specimen of humanity as he appears before you to-day. 
(Laughter and applause.) 

Ladies and gentlemen, the speeches I have to deliver are prepared, therefore, I 
will not speak any longer, except to say this: this is a year of tercentenaries, if I may 
so express it. You are welcome, my friends, to celebrate the discovery of Lake 
Champlain 300 years ago by our great ancestor, the father of New France, and the 
founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, but you can also celebrate, and we will 
join with you if you do celebrate, the tercentenary of another great navigator, of 
another great explorer, Hudson, who gave to you in his searches for the riches of 



206 State of New York 



India and Cathay, the Hudson River, which he discovered south of us, and who 
gave it to you just as he gave to us Canadians the majestic Bay of Hudson to the 
north. Hudson came nearly as far as Albany, and he could have shaken hands 
with Samuel de Champlain. What a magnificent page of history was made 300 



years ago 



Hudson and Champlain came not to declare war on the Indian tribes. Cham- 
plain at least came to evangelize this continent, with his missionaries in their black 
robes. These men came here with a mission of peace, full of humanity, full of 
justice. Let us learn from those men, let us learn from that glorious past, what to 
do in the future. 

Under the inspiration of the great statesman who is now at the head of affairs in 
this American commonwealth you are beginning to realize the dream of Champlain. 
He was the first to say that there should be a canal at Panama in order to reach 
the far East. Under the vigorous and patriotic policy of President Taft that dream 
will soon be realized. 

Champlain did not only discover that magnificent sheet of water; he also dis- 
covered and surveyed the River Ottawa and its tributaries, and the day is not far 
distant when not President Taft, but the Prime Minister of Canada, Sir Wilfred 
Laurier, will realize the dream of Champlain and give us the Georgian Canal in 
order to bring from our far West the riches which it contains. 

We learn many things, gentlemen, from these great men, and it is a pleasure for 
us to be here with you to-day, because men like Champlain, men like Hudson, men 
like Macdonough, as stated a moment ago by our good friend, the Governor of New 
York, do not belong only to one race, they do not belong only to one people; they 
belong to humanity, and we claim a share in them. (Applause.) But I must not 
speak further. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your kindness, and I hope 
that Vermont will give us as nice weather as we have to-day. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 207 



Chairman Knapp — The formal historical address will be given by 
a gentleman who needs no introduction within the limits of the State of 
New York — the former Secretary of State and the present Senator from 
the State of New York — the Honorable Elihu Root. 

THE IROQUOIS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICA 

Address of the Honorable ElIHU RooT. 

It is no ordinary event that we celebrate. 

The beauty of this wonderful lake, first revealed to the eye of civilized man by 
the visit of Samuel Champlain three hundred years ago; the powerful personality, 
noble character, and romantic career of ihe discoverer: the historic importance of 
this controlling line of strategic military communication, along which have passed in 
successive generations the armies whose conflicts were to determine the control and 
destinies of great empires: the value to Canada and to the United States of this 
natural pathway of commerce: the growth and prosperity of the noble states that 
have arisen on the opposing shores: their contributions to the wealth of mankind, to 
civil and religious liberty, to the world's progress in civilization — all these, with- 
draw the first coming of the white man to Lake Champlain from the dull and unin- 
teresting level of the commonplace; while comparative antiquity, so attractive and 
inspiring to the people of the New World, lends dignity and romance to the figures 
and the acts that have escaped oblivion through centuries. 

Even a dull imagination must be stirred as it dwells upon the influence which the 
events attending the discovery were to have, upon the issue of the great struggle 
between France and Great Britain for the control of the continent: the struggle 
between the two white races for the opportunity to colonize and expand, and between 
the two systems of law and civil polity, for the direction and development of civiliza- 
tion among the millions who were to people the vast region extending from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Rio Grande to the frozen limits of the North. 

Authentic history records that late in June, I 609, Champlain, accompanied by 
several white companions and by a great array of Algonquin Indians of the Saint 
Lawrence Valley, left the French station on the site of the old Indian village of 
Stadacona, where now stands the City of Quebec, upon an expedition intended by 
the Indians for war and by the whites for exploration. They proceeded in canoes 
up the Saint Lawrence and turned south into the Richelieu, and, in the early days 
of July, after many vicissitudes and the desertion of the greater part of the Indians, 
they dragged their canoes around the rapids of the river and came to the foot of the 
lake on whose shores we stand. They proceeded up the lake with all the precautions 
of Indian warfare in an enemy's country. As they approached the head of the lake 



208 State of New York 



they rested concealed by day, and urged forward their canoes by night. At last, 
in this month of July, three hundred years ago, they came upon a war party of the 
Iroquois. Both parties landed, in the neighborhood of the present Ticonderoga, 
and, with the coming of the dawn, joined battle. Protected by the light armor of 
the period, Champlain advanced to the front in full view of the contending parties, 
and, as the Iroquois drew their bows upon him, he fired his arquebuse. One of his 
white companions also fired. The Iroquois chief and several of his warriors fell 
killed or wounded; and the entire band, amazed and terror stricken by their first 
experience with the inexplicable, miraculous, and death-dealing power of firearms, 
fled in dismay. They were pursued by the Algonquins, some were killed, some 
were taken prisoners, and the remainder returned to their homes to spread through 
all the tribes of the Iroquois the story that a new enemy had arisen bringing unheard 
of and supernatural powers to the aid of their traditional Algonquin foes. The shot 
from Champlain's arquebuse had determined the part that was to be played in the 
approaching conflict by the most powerful military force among the Indians of 
North America. It had made the confederacy of the Iroquois and all its nations 
and dependencies the implacable enemies of the French and the fast friends of the 
English for all the long struggle that was to come. 

A century or more before the white settlement five Indian nations of the same 
stock and language, under the leadership of extraordinary political genius, had formed 
a confederacy for the preservation of internal peace and for common defense against 
external attack. Their territories extended in 1 609 from the Saint Lawrence to 
the Susquehanna; from Lake Champlain and the Hudson to the Genesee, and, a 
few years later, to the Niagara. There, dwelt side by side the Mohawks, the 
Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, in the firm union of 
Ho-de-no-sau-nee — the Long House of the Iroquois. 

The Algonquin tribes that surrounded them were still in the lowest stage of 
industrial life and for their food added to the spoils of the chase only wild fruits 
and roots. The Iroquois had passed into the agricultural stage. They had settled 
habitations and cultivated fields. They had extensive orchards of the apple, made 
sugar from the maple, and raised corn and beans and squash and pumpkins. The 
surrounding tribes had only the rudimentary political institution of chief and followers. 
The Iroquois had a carefully devised constitution well adapted to secure confederate 
authority in matters of common interest, and local authority in matters of local 
interest. 

Each nation was divided into tribes, the Wolf tribe, the Bear tribe, the Turtle 
tribe, etc. The same tribes ran through all the nations, the section in each nation 
being bound by ties of consanguinity to the sections of the same tribe in the other 



The Champlain Tercentenary 209 



nations. Thus a Seneca Wolf was brother to every Mohawk Wolf, a Seneca Bear 
to every Mohawk Bear. The arrangement was like that of our college societies with 
chapters in different colleges. So there were bonds of tribal union running across 
the lines of national union; and the whole structure was firmly knit together as by 
the warp and woof of a textile fabric. 

The government was vested in a council of fifty sachems, a fixed number coming 
from each nation. The sachems from each nation came in fixed proportions from 
specific tribes in that nation; the office was hereditary in the tribe; and the member 
of the tribe to fill it was elected by the tribe. 

The sachems of each nation governed their own nation in all local affairs. Below 
the sachems were elected chiefs on the military side and Keepers of the Faith on 
the religious side. Crime was exceedingly rare; insubordination was unknown; 
courage, fortitude and devotion to the common good were universal. 

The territory of the Long House covered the watershed between the Saint Law- 
rence basin and the Atlantic. From it the waters ran into the Saint Lawrence, the 
Hudson, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and the Ohio. Down these Hnes of 
communication the war parties of the confederacy passed, beating back or over- 
whelming their enemies until they had become overlords of a vast region extending 
far into New England, the Carolinas, the Valley of the Mississippi, and to the 
coast of Lake Huron. 

They held in subjection an area including the present States of New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, 
Northern Virginia and Tennessee, and parts of New England, Illinois, Indiana, 
Michigan and Ontario. 

Of all the inhabitants of the New World they were the most terrible foes and 
the most capable of organized and sustained warfare; and of all the inhabitants 
north of Mexico they were the most civilized and intelligent. 

The century which followed the voyages of Columbus had been for the Northern 
continent a period of exploration and discovery, of search for gold and for fabulous 
cities and for a passage to the Indies, of fugitive fur trade with the natives, of 
fisheries on the banks, and of feeble, disastrous attempts at occupation, but not of 
permanent settlement. Ponce de Leon and De Soto and Verrazano, Cartier and 
the Cabots and Drake and Frobisher and Gilbert and Gosnold, had brought the 
Western coast of the Atlantic out from the mists of fable; but they had left no 
trace upon its shores. Jean Ribaut and his French Huguenots had attempted to 
do for their religion in Florida what the Pilgrims did in the following century on the 
coast of Massachusetts; but their colony was destroyed with incredible cruelty, in 
the name of religion, by the ferocious Spaniard, Menendez, and the colony of 
Menendez was in turn destroyed by the Gascon de Gourgues, save a feeble remnant 
15 



210 State of New York 



on the site of Saint Augustine. Raleigh, with noble constancy and persistency, had 
wasted his fortune in repeated and vain attempts to establish a colony in Virginia. 
On the sites of the modern Quebec and Montreal, at Tadousac, at the mouth of 
the Saint Croix, and at Port Royal, Jacques Cartier and Roberval, Pontgrave and 
De Monts, Poutrincourt and Lescarbot, had seen their heroic and devoted efforts 
to establish a new France brought to naught by cold and starvation and disease. In 
that month of July, 1609, in all the vast expanse between Florida and Labrador 
no settlement of white men held its place or presaged the coming of the future multi- 
tude save at Jamestown, behind the Capes of Virginia, where Christopher Nevqjort's 
handful of colonists had barely survived two years of privation, and at Quebec, 
where the undaunted Pontgrave and Champlain only one year before had again 
gained a foothold. At Jamestown the mournful record of the winter of 1609 to 
1610 shows us that in the spring but sixty of the colonists were living. At Quebec 
twenty-eight Frenchmen with Champlain had braved the rigors of a Canadian 
winter, and in the spring of 1610, but eight remained alive. 

In this same month of July, 1 609, the Half Moon of Henry Hudson was repair- 
ing damages in Penobscot Bay after her voyage across the Atlantic, and preparing 
to sail on to the noble river that still bears her commander's name. 

The field was open; the hands upon the margin that reached out to grasp control 
seemed few and feeble ; but the period of preparation was past. The mighty forces 
that were to urge on the most stupendous movement of mankind in human history 
had already received their direction. The time was ripe for the real conflict to 
begin, and it had its momentous beginning when the Chief of the Mohawks fell 
before the arquebuse of Champlain at Ticonderoga. 

The conditions which limited the powers and directed the purposes of the various 
countries of Europe in the early years of the seventeenth century made it inevitable 
that the struggle for American control should ultimately become a single combat 
between France and Great Britain. 

It is true that Spain had overturned the tribal government of the Aztecs and held 
possession along the Northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, a vantage ground from 
which she might well have pressed to the northward successful plans of occupation. 
But Spain had no such plans. When the search for treasure had failed, and it was 
plain that no more Perus and Mexicos were to be found, the dark forests of the 
North Atlantic offered no attractions to the Spanish Conquistadores, who sought the 
spoils of conquest rather than the rewards of labor. 

With the death of Philip the Second the decline of Spanish power had already 
begun. His successors were feeble and incapable. The stern, repressive, and 
despotic control over body and soul effected by the union of military and religious 



The Champlain Tercentenary 21 



organization during the first century of United Spain was accompanied by a marvelous 
efficiency and energy that made Spain for a time the foremost maritime and coloniz- 
ing power of the world. The price of that efficiency, however, was the loss of the 
only permanent source of national energy, the independence and free initiative of 
individual character among her citizens. Thenceforth Spain was no longer to sway 
the rod of empire, but, holding it weakly in feeble hands, was to lose one by one 
the world-wide possessions of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, until the 
time when the penalty of her national sin against civil and religious freedom should 
have been paid and the native strength and nobility of her character should be able 
to reassert themselves in a period of renewed growth and re-established power and 
prosperity; a time which we hope and trust has already come. 

Portugal, still clinging to the fruits of her explorers' genius, and sturdy Holland, 
strong in her newly won freedom, were looking not to North America, but to Brazil 
and to the Orient for their opportunities to expand; and the future colony of New 
Amsterdam was destined to be readily transferred to the English for the sake of 
greater opportunities to the Dutch East India Company. 

Germany was not yet a maritime power. Loosely compacted under the failing 
hegemony of the House of Austria, she was upon the threshold of the Thirty Years' 
War in which the most frightful slaughter and devastation were to destroy her cities, 
lay waste her fields, reduce her population from thirty millions to twelve millions, 
and set back her civilization for centuries. 

Into that vortex of destruction Sweden also was about to be drawTi, and her forces 
were to be engrossed in the struggle for national existence, so that the hopes of 
Gustavus Adolphus for a New Sweden, upon the banks of the Delaware, were to 
fail of fruition, and the Swedish colony in America was to pass with hardly a 
struggle into the hands first of the Dutch and then of the Enghsh. 

Prussia was a dependent dukedom. Russia had still three-quarters of a century 
to wait before Peter the Great was to begin to lead her from semi-barbarism into 
the ranks of civilized powers. Italy was a geographical expression covering a 
multitude of petty states. 

Of all the peoples of Europe, only the French and the English possessed the 
power, the energy, the adventurous courage, the opportunity and the occasion, for 
expansion across the Atlantic. The field and the prize were for them, and for 
them alone. 

Upon the throne of France was Henry the Fourth, the greatest of French kings. 
In the governing class of Frenchmen, political and religious, were the virile strength, 
the intellectual acum.en, the romantic chivalry, the strong passions, the love of glory, 
the capacity for devotion to ideals ; which were to make possible the rule of Richelieu, 



212 State of New York 



the ascendency of Louis the Fourteenth, the pohtical ideaHsts of the Eighteenth 
century, the tremendous social forces whose outbreak in the French Revolution 
appalled the world, and the armies of Napoleon. 

In England the reign of great Elizabeth had just closed. It was the England 
of Spenser and Shakespeare and Bacon; of Cecil and Raleigh; of Drake and 
Frobisher. John Hampden and Cromwell and Milton were in their childhood. 
For four centuries since Magna Charta Englishmen had become accustomed to the 
assertion of individual rights of the citizen against arbitrary power. Since the 
repudiation of Roman supremacy over the national church, by Henry the Eighth, 
three generations had become wonted to the assertion of religious freedom. King 
James's translation of the Bible was in progress and nearly completed. The deep 
religious feeling of the Puritan reaction against both Roman and Royal Episcopacy 
that was to cost Charles the First his life and James the Second his throne, had 
already become a controlling motive among a great multitude of the English people. 

From these two countries, each possessed of great powers, each endowed with 
noble qualities, proceeded the colonists who were to dispute for the possession of 
America. The French movement was in the main governmental, aristocratic, proceed- 
ing from state and church, designed to extend and increase the power, dominion, and 
glory of the King, to convert the Indians to the true faith, and to extend over them 
and over all the lands through which they roamed, and over all who should come 
after them and take their place, the same iron rule of conformity against which the 
Huguenots of France were vainly contending. The English movement was in the 
main popular, proceeding from the people of England who wished to escape either 
church or state at home and to find freedom in a new world for the practice of their 
religion or the pursuit of their fortunes according to their own ideas. Some of the 
English colonies braved the hardships of exile rather than conform against their 
consciences to requirements of practice and doctrine which the English church 
imposed. Some sought for fortune in the New World because the State had so 
distributed the property and so closed the avenues for advancement in England that 
they must needs seek opportunities elsewhere if at all. 

For centuries the struggle between civil and religious absolutism on the one hand 
and individual liberty on the other were waged alike in France and in England. 
The attempt to colonize America came from one side of the controversy in France 
and from the other side of the same controversy in England. The virtues of the 
two systems were to be tried out and the irrepressible conflict between them was to 
be continued in the wilderness. 

For capable and efficient leadership, for far-sighted and comprehensive plans, for 
clear understanding of existing conditions and prevision as to the future, for con- 
spicuous examples of heroic achievement and self-devotion, the palm must be awarded 



The Champlain Tercentenary 213 



to the French over their EngHsh competitors. There are few chapters in history 
so full of romantic interest, so compelling in their demands for sympathy and 
admiration, as the record of the century and a half that began with the wooden 
fortress of Champlain under the bluff at Quebec and ended with the fall of Mont- 
calm on the Heights of Abraham. 

The world owes many debts to France. Not the least of these is the inspiration 
the men of every race can find in the noble examples of such explorers as Nicollet 
and Joliet and La Salle; such leaders as Champlain and Frontenac and Duquesne 
and Montcalm; and such missionaries as Le Caron and Breboeuf and Marquette. 
They strove for the execution of a great design, holding hardship and suffering and 
life of little account in their loyalty to their religion and their King. With infinite 
pains they won the friendship of the Indians of the Saint Lawrence and the far 
Northwest; they carried the flag of France to the mouth of the Mississippi; they 
drew a cordon of military posts up the Saint Lawrence, across to the Mississippi, 
and down to the Gulf, well designed to bar the westward advance of the English 
colonies, to save the great West for their race, and thence to press the English back- 
ward to the sea. Their soldiers were, as a rule, better led, better organized, and 
moved on more definite and certain plans than the English. Occasionally some born 
fighter on the English side would accomplish a great deed, like Pepperrell at Louis- 
burg, or some man of supreme good sense would bring order out of confusion, as 
did Franklin and Washington; but as a rule Colonial legislatures were slow and 
vacillating ; Colonial governors were indifferent and short-sighted ; and Colonial move- 
ments were marked by a lack of that definite responsibility, coupled with power, so 
essential to successful warfare. 

Fortunately for England between the two parties all along the controlling strategic 
line from this Lake Champlain to the gateway of the West at Fort Duquesne, 
stretched the barrier of the Long House and its tributary nations. They were always 
ready, always organized, always watchful. They continually threatened and 
frequently broke the great French military line of communication. Along the whole 
line they kept the French continually in jeopardy. Before the barrier the French 
built forts and trained soldiers — behind it the English cleared the forests and built 
homes and cultivated fields and grew to a great multitude, strong in individual 
freedom and in the practice of self-government. Again and again the French hurled 
their forces against the Long House, but always v/ith little practical advantage. At 
one time De Tracy, the Viceroy, burned villages and laid waste the land of the 
Iroquois with twelve hundred French soldiers. At another, La Barre, the 
Governor, with eighteen hundred; at another, Denonville, with two thousand; 
at another, Frontenac with six hundred ; at still another, Frontenac with a thousand. 



214 State of New York 



Always there came also a cloud of Algonquin allies. Always the Iroquois retired 
and then returned, rebuilt their villages, replanted their fields, resumed their operations, 
and in their turn took ample revenge for their injuries. 

So, to and fro the war parties went, harrying and burning and killing, but always 
the barrier stood, and always with its aid the English colonies labored and fought 
and grew strong. When the final struggle came between the armies of France and 
England, the French had the genius of Montcalm and soldiers as brave as ever 
drew sword; but behind Wolfe and his stout English hearts was a new people, rich 
in supplies, trained in warfare, and ready to fight for their homes. South Carolina, 
the records show, furnished twelve hundred and fifty men for the war; Virginia, 
two thousand; Pennsylvania, two thousand seven hundred; New Jersey, one thou- 
sand; New York, two thousand six hundred and eighty; New Hampshire and 
Rhode Island, one thousand; Connecticut, five thousand; Massachusetts, seven thou- 
sand. It was not merely the army — it was that a nation had arrived, too great 
in numbers, in extent of territory, in strength of independent, individual character, to 
be overwhelmed by any power that France could possibly produce. The conclusion 
was foregone. A battle lost or won at Quebec or elsewhere could but hasten or 
retard the result a little. The result was sure to come as it did come. 

In all this interesting and romantic story may be seen two great proximate causes 
of the French failure and the English success; two reasons why from Quebec to 
the Pacific we speak English, follow the course of the common law, and estimate 
and maintain our rights according to the principles of English freedom. 

One of these was the great inferiority of the Indian allies of the French, and the 
great superiority of the Indian aUies of the English; the effective and enduring 
organization, the war-like power of the Iroquois and their fidelity to the " covenant 
chain " which bound them to our fathers. The other cause lies deeper: It is that 
peoples, not monarchs, settlers, not soldiers, build empires : that the spirit of absolutism 
in a royal court is a less vital principle than the spirit of liberty in a nation. 

In these memorial days let there be honor to Champlain and the chivalry of 
France: honor to the strong free hearts of the common people of England; and honor 
also to the savage virtues, the courage and loyal friendship of the Long House of 
the Iroquois. (Applause.) 

Chairman Knapp — Ladles and gentlemen, we will now listen to an 
original poem entitled " Champlain and Lake Champlain," by Daniel L. 
Cady, of New York City. 

Dr. Cady read as follows: 



The Champlain Tercentenary 215 



CHAM PLAIN AND LAKE CHAMPLAIN 

A POEM 

By Daniel L. Cady, L. H. D. 

We meet to raise the lofty strain 

Of lands beyond the Western main; 

Of Henry's men and Richeheu's ships. 

Of mounting hearts and trembhng lips; 

Of brave De Monts and bold De Chastes, 

Of hardships strange and hazards vast; 

Of Pont Grave and Poutrincourt, 

Of flaunting flags and graves obscure; 

Of dunes as drear as drear d'Olonne, 

Of streams as fair as fair Garonne ; 

Of Winter's blasts and Spring's perfume, 

Of Honfleur's hopes and Dochet's doom — 

Of man's new-found inheritance. 

The wondrous land of Nouvelle France. 

We meet the lofty strain to raise. 

Of those who passed, deprived of praise; 

Of Levis, Bourlamaque, Raymond, 

Of pious Jogues and De Casson; 

Of labors ne'er before endured. 

Of beckoning seas and lands that lured; 

Of hoped-for harvests never gleaned. 

Of friend turned foe, and foe turned fiend; 

Of one whose justice made him brave — 

The knight whose stainless plumes still wave; 

The White man who first saw this spot, 

I name him, and I name him not — 

He whom no painter limned, but yet 

Whose picture in all hearts is set. 

Four times King Henry's ships have sailed away. 
From France toward Canseau's coast and Sable Bay; 
As often, homeward, have his captains brave 
Returned from Tadoussac and high La Heve. 



216 State of New York 



Each captain's tale enlists an eager court. 
Each sailor's story stirs his native port; 
List, as the sailor tells, with solemn sigh. 
Of Fundy's tides that roll a mast-head high; 
With furious words he tells of men whose skin 
Is red and bloody as their hearts within; 
Strange signs, vast wonders, fill the new domain. 
Did not a fish's tooth heal his migraine ! 
Did not a native princess yield her kiss! 
Did he not hear the Gougou's hideous hiss! 
Did he not hunt the scaled chaousarou. 
And eat of gooseberries, red and green and blue! 
Did he not sight the Magpie Islands, where 
The souls of women fill the chattering air! 

Each captain's carriage is erect and high. 

As one on whom his monarch may rely; 

No kingdom have we found," they haste to say — 

No kingdom, but a world, that waits the day — 

A new-found world that waits the Lily's sway." 

There, Eastward, rolls a vast and lordly stream. 

There lakes and seas in tangled net-work gleam; 

There native flowers attract the stranger's feet. 

There vines take root, and pheasant's flesh is sweet; 

There stand the trees of France, erect and tall. 

There falcons wheel, and pigeons coo and call ; 

There mines of copper gem the ocean's side, 

And drip their useless wealth into the tide; 

Great harbors, leagues in length, and roadsteads wide, 

Invite the commerce of two worlds to ride; 

Each frowning headland hides a sheltering bay, 

Each rising port shall be Port Fortune. 

What deeds shall there be done of high emprise. 

What fleets sail thence, what argent cities rise! 

The seat where Venice sits the seas amid 

Was once a marsh where hunted sailors hid; 

Marseilles arose above a reedy fen. 

And Genoa's site was bare of soil or men. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 217 



All France awakes; the men of Normandie 

Another Conquering WilHam's banners see; 

Behold new lights and fires in Breton eyes. 

Behold St. Malo's sinking fortunes rise! 

New keels are laid, new gonfalons designed, 

New charters granted, new commissions signed. 

Amidst this general joy, o'er leagues of foam. 

King Henry's ships and captains journey home; 

With them the king's young friend, Champlain, returns — 

The Brouage sailor — Brouage rings and burns — 

There sounds throughout all Saintonge, near and far, 

Long live the king! Long live the Xaintongeois! 

But short his stay; great lords and gentlemen 

Equip new ships, and soon he sails again; 

Again he sights St. Pierre, again surveys 

Assomption's length of trivial capes and bays; 

Thence holds his course direct toward Tadoussac, 

Thence Southward, past Cap Tourmente, bold and black. 

To high Quebec; thence past low-lying lands 

To Hochelaga, where now proudly stands 

A mighty city; thence by shallop frail 

Toward this sweet sea and this productive vale — 

This land wherein the tameless Iroquois 

And tall Algonquins wage perpetual war. 

So goes the voyager to and fro 

Between New France and France, 
Whilst thirty times the vineyards blow. 

And thirty frosts advance — 
Indifferent to Winter's wrath. 

Careless of circumstance. 

The navigator who ne'er raised 

The signal of distress; 
Who on the Northern ice-pack gazed. 

Who knew the South's caress — 
Whose genius dreamed and sailed new seas 

With splendid steadfastness. 



218 State of New York 



The patient colonizer, wise 

To sun, soil, roof, and rain; 

Who saw, as with anointed eyes. 
The centuries in his train — 

Who sowed the seeds of states to be 
As sower sows the grain. 

The author, who with tireless hand. 
Set down the things he saw; 

The first historian of the land. 

He gave the earliest law — 

The law that banned the poisoned shaft. 
And clipped the rending claw. 

The faithful viceroy of his king. 

In regions far remote. 
And yet no censuring council's sting 

Impaled the words he wrote — 
The viceroy whose sagacious lips 

No prince nor princeling smote. 

The explorer favored of the fates — 
The White man who first stood 

Upon the soil of these fair states 
That dwell in sisterhood ; 

The first to sail this limpid sea. 
And hail Ontario's flood. 

The missionary of that Love 

That counts the rescued soul 

Of one poor savage far above 

The world's deceitful goal — 

Who set the writhing captive free. 
And filled the beggar's bowl. 

The man who, in a tinsel age. 

Cared naught for shields or bars. 

Or state or showy equipage. 

Whose name no scandal scars — 

Whose memory, like a lofty shaft. 
Stands level with the stars. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 219 



We see him on that Summer morn, 

There where the RicheHeu's breast is torn 

By ragged rocks; the wounded tide 

Delays him not — he may not bide ; 

There he his " ships " so grim and fierce. 

Whose sides an arrow's point would pierce; 

His " stores " some skins of pounded maize, 

His " course '* the choice of unknown ways; 

His " admirals " decked in feathers gay. 

His " captains " smeared with paint and clay; 

His " armament " three muskets rude. 

His " sailors " wolves of human brood; 

Of all his Frenchmen, only two 

Are present at this wild review; 

Two only reckon not the cost. 

And they — their faithful names are lost. 

We see him as he numbers o'er 

His mighty fleet — two score and four 

Of bark canoes; he lifts his eyes 

One questioning moment to the skies; 

His bravest hope, his dearest thought, 

His zealots comprehended not; 

The sixty wolf-men that he led 

He knew loved carnage more than bread; 

He knew their hearts were filled with hate. 

And cruelties insatiate ; 

He hfts his hand, the rude oars fall — 

The Northland passes to the Gaul. 

And now, although no crowned king approves. 
The strange and unproclaimed armada moves; 
Southward it takes its silent, warlike way, 
Nor bourse, nor lords of trade, say yea or nay. 
Like some dark dragon, seen in fevered dream 
Of Sikh or Bengalee, it breasts the stream; 
The trees along the Richelieu closer stand. 
And, trembling, hold each other by the hand; 
The vines draw closer to the oaks and firs. 
The shores are bare of Summer's choristers; 



220 State of New York 



Two hundred years and more of bloody strife 
This bold excursion quickens into life; 
The vexed and shuddering river seems to feel 
The coming of the prow and mast of steel, 
When peace at last shall reign, the sunlight shine 
On forts dismantled and on camps benign. 

One night he halts, that by the light of day 
His eyes may first the virgin lake survey; 
Ere long the shores recede, new sights appear, 
He feels a rare and radiant presence near; 
His queen, his queen of waters, unto him 
Affianced in creation's morning dim. 
The spell comes o'er him lovers languish for, 
And for a day he thinks no more of war; 
These lines of foam that catch amidst the sedge. 
Are they not laces at her garment's edge? 
These beauteous isles, as green as they are fair. 
Are they not emeralds set to deck her hair? 
These summered breezes, are they not her sigh? 
These tall, dark pines the lashes at her eye? 
These shimmering ripples, are they not her smile, 
To draw him on and on with witching wile? 
Enrapt he stands, his eye his heart betrays. 
Her bosom swells responsive to his gaze ; 
Again he looks, he smiles, he cries " Je t'aime," 
She sighs, she yields, and takes her lover's name. 

From passion's fine imaginings 

He turns again to sterner things; 

One further day he halts, and then 

Goes Southward with his painted men; 

Soon, from the East, the sandy arm 

Of Windmill Point holds out its palm; 

Still further East, before his eyes, 

Le Lion Couchant props the skies; 

Next, in the West, long slate cliffs stare. 

The ore beds false of Pointe au Per; 

Then Southward, Isle La Motte appears — 

Renowned thenceforth through all the years — 



The Champlain Tercentenary 221 



La Motte, whose crown of pines was oIJ 

When Capet wore his crown of gold; 

La Motte, whose quarried blocks shall stand 

In massive towers as high and grand. 

Supporting firm, for later man, 

Victoria's tube and Brooklyn's span: 

There, on the undefended sands. 

The unannounced flotilla lands. 

And whilst his warriors feast and rest. 

He dreams the Empire of the West. 

As Europe, from an age-long trance. 

Was waked by thrust of Moorish lance. 

So did this war-bound party wake 

These sleeping lands and oarless lake; 

As from the waves yon peaks first rose 

In nature's primal throbs and throes. 

So, at his coming, land and sea 

Emerged from darkest savagery. 

If Tyre a conquering flag unfurled. 

And Delos ruled the ancient world. 

What of these islands of the North, 

From which, full-armed, two states sprang forth ! 

We see him, as with thoughtful mien. 

He leaves La Motte's unsullied scene; 

Continuing the Southward course. 

He leads his punitory force; 

Past other isles he journeys on. 

He doubles frowning Scononton; 

And near that river's outlet goes 

St. Amant,* that for sweethearts flows; 

Past Valcour's cedar trees, that throw 

Deep shadows on the waves below; 

On, toward the dark heights in the South, 

Past the Au Sable's double mouth. 

Past Colchester's three-pointed spear. 

Past Schuyler, fashioned like a tear; 



The French called the Saranac. Riviere de St. Amant. 



222 State of New York 



And now the open lake they hail — 

He looks — a sea without a sail! 

Far-reaching shores with balanced bays. 

Far-stretching waters meet his gaze; 

With fear his savages descry 

A rock that from the waves stands high — 

Dark Rejiohne, gloomy, lone, 

Man's first and firmest boundary stone; 

Older than Holy Simeon's style, 

Or Trajan's shaft or Cheops' pile; 

Southward of which no Huron goes. 

Nor Mohawk North, but life-blood flows; 

Upon his left tall peaks rise white. 

And loftier peaks upon his right; 

Those heights, his savages explain. 

Hide fertile stretches rich in grain; 

There open valleys filled with fruit. 

The faithless Iroquois pollute; 

There dwell their foes — the lake goes near 

Three days, and they shall die of fear! 

We see him pass the Brothers Four, 
The Boquet's mouth and Shelburne's shore; 
On past Split Rock, by nature named. 
And down the years at Utrecht famed; 
On past the less and larger creek, 
Whose burrowed banks the otters seek; 
On toward the charming North West bay. 
He takes " the tourist's favorite way; " 
On Southward toward that narrow shore. 
Where now Port Henry's forges roar; 
Where Vulcan finds his art assigned 
To masters skilled as they are kind. 

But now they shun the telltale light. 
They rest by day, advance by night; 
No camp fire makes their presence known; 
When morning dawns their barks are gone; 
Noiseless as falls November's snow 
They move upon their ancient foe. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 223 



We see him as his Hltle band 

Draws near a cape or point of land, 

That from the Western shore hne trends. 

And far into the lake extends; 

Here, as they sailed with faces set. 

The bloody Iroquois they met; 

Then rose the wildest shouts and screams 

That ever filled a captive's dreams. 

As all the tortured sons of men 

Were put to torture once again. 

The threat of battle in the morn 
Was hurled and met with equal scorn; 
The Pilotois his curses rained 
In palsied speech for once unfeigned; 
The Ostemoy, beyond control. 
Poured out his demon-flooded soul, 
And insults vipers might not slight 
Were lost in insults infinite. 

At morning's first and fairest hour. 

We see him land his little power; 

The barks are drawn upon the sand. 

And weapons passed from hand to hand; 

Within the wood, obscured from view. 

His Frenchmen go — the nameless two — 

Before him, in the matin glow. 

Encamps the barricaded foe — 

Two hundred Iroquois, who bear 

Stout bows, and hempen breastplates wear; 

Whose war-code red their Sachems frame. 

With rites and orgies none may name. 

Midst fasting, feasting and carouse. 

In far Oneida's council house. 

The opposing warriors now display 
Their men in battle disarray; 
Mohawk and Montagnais prepare 
To wreak the hate their bosoms bear; 



224 State of New York 



Around about their camps they go. 
They wag their heads and cry " Ho! Ho! " 
The mumbhng soothsayers curse and wail, 
The witch-led warriors boast and rail; 
They beat the earth, they beat the air. 
They threaten, dance, grimace, and glare ; 
But phalanx firm or ordered line. 
Inspiring banner, battle sign. 
Impinging shields or marshaled power. 
Are wanting in that fateful hour. 

We see him as he takes his stand 

To lead the small Algonquin band; 

There must the invading force prevail. 

Or none remain to tell the tale; 

One moment's space he hesitates. 

But in the moment's space he waits. 

His childhood's happy home he sees. 

His father seated ' neath the trees ; 

He hears the bells when day is done, 

He sees his mother bless her son. 

From out their rude stockade the while. 

The haughty Iroquois defile; 

Before them three tall chiefs advance 

To meet the single arm of France; 

Onward they come in savage pride, 

With armored fronts, and plumes blown wide. 

And fearful mien and lordly stride. 

And hate-filled eyes; 
Three bows are raised in deadly aim. 
Three voices curse the Huron name — 
When, lo! a blast of sound and flame 

That rends the skies! 
Two chiefs lie dead upon the ground — 
Another blast of flame and sound — 
The third chief has his mortal wound 

And cannot rise; 



The Champlain Tercentenary 225 



Again the arquebuses ring. 

The lead balls sing, the arrows sting. 

The furious victors forward spring 

With piercing cries; 
The Iroquois his fate discerns. 
Too late the White man's art he learns. 
The Indian of Indians turns — 

He turns, he flies ! 
Before the morning hours were done. 
The field of Lake Champlain was won, 
The homeward march and voyage begun. 

The strife Is o'er, the dying and the slain 

Alone upon the trampled shore remain; 

Henceforth that bloody marge of lake so clear 

Shall be the Place of Scalps for many a year; 

Such was the sowing, such the seed and root. 

Of which the present is the flower and fruit ; 

Such conflict sharp and fierce prepared the way 

For men who raise the arch, and men who pray; 

A barren era of barbarian power 

Was ending in that dark and iron hour; 

New worlds indeed were opening for mankind. 

Not lands and seas alone, but worlds of mind; 

Then Science beamed on men with her bright eyes. 

Then History ceased to be '* conceded lies; " 

Then Commerce turned her gaze to every land. 

And stretched to every zone her jeweled hand. 

In that same year an old man, with his glass. 

Explored the paths where Night's bright chariots pass; 

Beheld new suns and systems wheel and shine. 

And warmed men's hearts with knowledge, as with wine; 

Champlain and Galileo — two who bore 

The torch of light where all was dark before. 

But ere we leave that earlier, ruder race, 
*Tis meet some fragments of their lore to trace; 
By other, gentler names than now they bear. 
They knew these scenes that have to-day our care; 



226 State of New York 



Lone Whiteface, ever old and ever young. 

Was Wahopartenie in the Red man's tongue; 

And Marcy, that uprears his head so high, 

Tahawas stood, the Wedge that Sphts the Sky; 

Whilst Mansfield, Moose of Mountains, 'midst the snows. 

As Moseodebewradso proudly rose; 

The Saranac as Sumac River glowed. 

As Wonakakatuk the Otter flowed; 

Split Rock Sobapsqua was, the Cloven Way; 

Quinask, the arm that shielded Shelburne Bay; 

The fortressed shore by Allen's bravery famed. 

Carillon, Chime of Bells, the good priests named. 

But softer yet from native lips it fell — 

Cheonderoga — Place Where Echoes Dwell. 

'Twas there beneath the narrowing waves. 
About the bottom's sunless caves. 
There dwelt, as savage legend ran, 
A race invisible to man ; 
A mighty race of stonesmiths they. 
The Tubal Cains of slate and clay; 
They filled with fire the friendly flints. 
And coined the wampum in their mints ; 
All spear points, clubs, and arrow-heads. 
All knives whose name the White still dreads; 
All peltry tools and scraping stones — 
Wherewith to scrape the roebuck's bones — • 
All barbs the carp and gar-pike gorged. 
Their subaquatic smithies forged. 

But all their handiwork they kept 
Within their lockers strong, and slept. 
Nor wakened from their sleep of greed. 
Till bribed by gifts of that sweet weed 
Whose incense, when by fire released. 
Sustains the fast and crowns the feast — 
The fragrant weed no code may ban. 
Beloved of man and superman. 
But when tobacco leaves were cast 
Upon the waves, their anger passed ; 



The Champlain Tercentenary 227 

They caused the winds at once to rise, 
And sent the storm clouds through the skies; 
And when the tempest fiercest blew, 
Their craftwork on the shores they threw: 
No bark went Northward at the dawn. 
Or neared at night the Horicon, 
That gave not gifts to win the grace 
And favor of the watery race. 

Historic Lake! whate'er the deeds 

Of fabled men or savage breeds. 

Enacted in the centuries dim. 

Beneath thy waves or at thy rim — 

More valiant deeds have heroes wrought 

Upon thy breast, and scarred it not. 

A highway and a battlefield. 

Here sloops and frigates marched and wheeled; 

The strife of distant kings and courts 

Was here expressed in fleets and forts; 

And true to life, the royal sneer 

Became a royal broadside here. 

As Valcour, like a needle true, 

Set in the waves when earth was new. 

Points to the North, and never veers 

Whatever force or flag appears — 

So did the action 'neath her lee 

Point to the pole of gallantry; 

The lofty courage there displayed. 

Won Europe's praise and Lafayette's aid; 

And still the patriot's hope revives, 

Whate'er his race, where'er he strives; 

There Arnold's line of slender length 

Withstood a fleet of double strength; 

And all he wrought and overcame. 

Permits us still to speak his name. 



228 



State of New York 



On yonder bay, to-day unstained. 

The young and brave Macdonough gained 

A wreath as green, a fame as bright. 

As he who won the Nile's proud fight; 

Twice on his flagship's deck that day. 

He senseless fell and prostrate lay; 

And twice he rose, with bloody lips. 

And called on Heaven and cheered his ships; 

Of happy name and omen they — 

The Preble hastened to the fray, 

The dark Ticonderoga roared 

Her broadsides out, the Eagle soared; 

The Saratoga, wounded oft, 

Still kept the flag we love aloft; 

And when the two hours' strife was o'er. 

Her silenced prizes numbered four. 

Few victories teach and shine like thisl 

Plattsburgh, the second Salamis! 

Historic Vale! thy charms comprise 
Far more than meets the traveler's eyes; 
The memory of thy heroes' deeds 
Is like a dream to him who reads; 
Romance in every scene inheres. 
And patriot valor moves to tears. 
Here oft the captive sighed his last. 
Here twice the avenging Schuylers passed. 
Resolved to swiftly vindicate 
Schenectady's appalling fate. 
These shores are still the homes of those 
Whose fathers fought with ruthless foes ; 
These shores a home to sons supply. 
Whose lives are plain, whose thinking high; 
Religion's shrines and learning's halls. 
Here stand like watchmen on their walls. 

Here on the Boquet's banks was spread 
That banquet to the surfeited ; 
That war feast, artfully designed 
To further fire the savage mind: 



The Champlain Tercentenary 229 



Four hundred Mohawks, there arrayed 
In fearful war dress, pledged their aid 
To devastate these fields and farms. 
And help the king maintain his arms. 
And thus became his Majesty's 
Most loyal, royal savages! 
Deceived Burgoyne! his feast supplied 
Less cheer than that of Barmecide! 

As Brutus fell and kissed his mother earth, 

We journey to this region of our birth. 

Full ready to embrace, if so might be. 

This boundless ocean of our infancy; 

A prismed pendant, dropped from out the skies. 

Between the everlasting hills it lies. 

Reflecting every cloud and every star — 

No man arranged the scene, and none shall mar; 

No foe to life that loves the crystal wave. 

Shall make this sea a vast and turbid grave; 

Sweet were these waters, tasted by Champlain, 

And healthful, sweet, and clear they must remain; 

Fair were these shores in virgin beauty then. 

But fairer now, set with the homes of men; 

And fairer, happier shall they be, when Trade 

Again resumes the way from which she strayed; 

When lofty ships, and lines of barges long. 

Shall bring, with costly bales, the sailor's song; 

The Caughnawauga's dream may yet be true — 

A port here rise more rich than Rome e'er knew. 

And if it be that Glory* is the sun 

Of those gone hence — of those whose day is done 

What floods of light must fill the Elysian ways. 

Wherein the great Explorer's spirit strays! 



* The French have a saying — "La gloire est le soleil des morts. 



230 State of New York 

Chairman Knapp — Ladies and Genllemen: I present the President 
of the United States (Applause.) 

The President — Governor Hughes, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am not 
going to detain you very long. I see Col. Cowles with his battalion ready to charge 
on you, and I have too much compassion for you to subject you to the results. 

First, I wish to congratulate you on having listened to such a great address as 
Senator Root has given us here in his discriminating historic sense and with the 
eloquence of words that I am sure we shall be glad to read over and over again. 
(Applause.) I didn't know — perhaps all of you did — but I didn't know that we 
were indebted so much to the Iroquois for the result that we are here, and that we 
are speaking English instead of French. (Laughter.) He has traced with the 
master hand of the man who knows peoples and constitutional law, the develop- 
ment of that strength that came from popular force in the Colonies, and that lined 
the Atlantic and that backed Wolfe in the fight which he had with Montcalm on 
the Plains of Abraham. 

I congratulate you that you had a French orator to-day in Senator Root. 
(Laughter.) The rest of us have been speaking from morning to dewey eve, and 
when we arise the first thing we think of and grope for is a subject. (Laughter.) 
My friend the Governor was fortunate enough to see the mountains of Vermont, 
and he dwelt on them. (Laughter.) My friend the French Ambassador couldn't 
get to his place without going around me, so he dwelt on me. (Laughter.) And 
while I value deep in my heart the compliment that he paid, I must attribute it to 
circumstances rather than design. And so too, with my friend the Postmaster- 
General from Canada. Well, there is a good deal in being a subject. He spoke 
of Murray Bay and my knowledge of Canada. I am delighted to say that for 1 6 
years I have spent most of my summers in Canada, and I have learned that north 
of us is a great and rising people (applause), a people bound to be prosperous, 
bound to be great, and whose prosperity and greatness I know that Americans are 
great enough not to be jealous of but to welcome. 

And now, my friends, we have all got to make speeches to-night. The subject 
which Governor Hughes has to-night is " New York." That is large enough, but 
I have to speak about the United Stales, and therefore, I ask you to excuse me 
from delaying you further except to congratulate you, as I do most heartily, on the 
success of these celebrations and memorials that bring out such good neighborhood 
feeling, that bring out such pride in our ancestry, that fill us with a knowledge of 
history, and that hold high above us the ideals which are right for nations and 
people to feel. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 23! 



Immediately following the literary exercises at Plattsburgh Barracks, 
evening parade was held, attended by many thousands. 

During the week the city of Plattsburgh had been given over to car- 
nival and spectacle. In the local celebration the preceding day it was 
designated as " French Day." The ceremonies had opened with a mass 
at St. Peter's church, celebrated by the Rt. Rev. Mgr. Racicot, Coadjutor 
Bishop of Montreal, assisted by Rev. J. N. Pelletier, O. M. I., pastor 
of St. Peter's church. During the mass hymns were sung by the boys' 
choir of St. Peter's. The church was decorated with flags and banners 
of the League of the Sacred Heart, and with the papal colors. A sermon 
was preached by the Very Rev. Father Dozois, O. M. I., of Montreal, 
Provincial of the Oblates in the Province of Quebec. Many visiting 
clergy from points in the United States and Canada shared in the service. 
Following this service a great parade passed through the streets of 
Plattsburgh, under the chief marshaling of Dr. J. H. LaRocque. It 
included many civic and church societies, numerous bands of music, and 
several historical floats, among them one representing Champlain's vessel, 
the Don de Dieu; another symbolizing the battle of Crown Point, another 
showing an audience of Champlain with Henry IV., and still others 
symbolizing episodes in the history of the region. The parade was 
reviewed in front of the court-house by the Mayor of Plattsburgh and 
other officials. On its arrival at St. Peter's college it was reviewed by 
church officials and there the address of the day was delivered by the 
Hon. H. A. Dubuque, city solicitor of Fall River, Mass. 

The throng that gathered on this occasion included a large part of the 
French-American residents of Northern New York, together with many 
visitors from Vermont and Canada. This element of the population of 
the Champlain valley had labored with great zeal to make their part 
of the celebration a success. A complete success it certainly was, char- 
acterized by good taste and artistic features which were fully appreciated 
by the public. 

The New York Tercentenary parade in Plattsburgh, on July 7th, 
brought together perhaps the most interesting body of troops ever seen 



232 State of New York 

in the region. It included not only numerous organizations of the United 
States regular army and of New York National Guard, but also of 
Canadian troops, conspicuous among them being the Governor-Generars 
Foot Guards and the Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders. These vis- 
itors formed a second division of the great parade in which also marched 
as escort the Second Regiment, National Guard, of New York. Colonel 
Calvin D. Cowles of the Fifth U. S. Infantry was grand marshal, his 
chief of staff being Captain E. Wittenmeyer, also of the Fifth Infantry. 
Then came his staff and aides, and, as personal escort to the President, 
Troop "H" of the Fifteenth Cavalry, Captain W. T. Littebrant 
commanding. The President and party rode in carriages, followed by 
a brigade of the regular army, consisting of the Fifth and Twenty-fourth 
Infantry, Colonel William Paulding of the Twenty-fourth command- 
ing. The second division, in which marched the Canadian troops, 
was commanded by Brigadier-General J. H. Lloyd, of the New 
York National Guard. A third division, Col. J. H. Grogan, marshal, 
was made up of veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic. Following 
the military were other divisions made up of civic and fraternal societies, 
with bands and floats. The President reviewed the parade from a grand 
stand at the military post, and, later, after the day's addresses, also 
reviewed a brigade parade. 

Other features of the celebration on this day at Plattsburgh, arranged 
by the New York Commission, included the Indian pageants, given in the 
morning and again at evening at the mouth of the Saranac river, and the 
day came to a close with a most elaborate display of fireworks. Very 
notable, too, were the electric illuminations. Meanwhile, the President 
and other high officials had returned to the Hotel Champlain, where, at 
8 o'clock, a banquet was served. 






yfx/^rt/^ /'fr/> </<r*'/ /ft /'f'_j, fttf^/^t' 






The Champlain Tercentenary 233 



THE BANQUET 

Four hundred and fifty guests, including New York legislators 
and State officers, attended the banquet at the Hotel Champlain, 
tendered to the President of the United States by the Governor of 
New York and the New York State Champlain Tercentenary Commis- 
sion. The great hotel, now only a memory, as it burned to the ground a 
few months afterward, was most elaborately trimmed for the occasion. 
The hotel grounds were festooned with thousands of Japanese lanterns 
and the building itself festooned with American flags. At the principal 
portals were draped the flags of France and Great Britain. The large 
dining-room displayed the climax of the decorator's art. Behind the 
President's seat was placed the coat of arms of the United States. At his 
right hand and his left were seated Governor Hughes of New York and 
Governor Prouty of Vermont, and behind them were the banners and 
official insignia of the respective states. Around the banquet hall were 
shown the banners of other states, with many American flags, and, at one 
end of the hall, a handsome oil painting of Champlain. Although the 
decorations were most elaborate, the effect was thoroughly artistic and 
pleasing. The engraved menu cards for each guest were bound in limp 
leather, stamped in gold. 

At the speakers' table were seated, besides the President and the 
Governors of New York and Vermont, the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, the 
British Ambassador; the Hon. Jean Jules Jusserand, the French Ambas- 
sador; Vice- Admiral Stakichi Uriu, of the Japanese Navy; the Hon. 
Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General of the Dominion of Canada; 
Sir Adolphe Pelletier, Lieut.-Governor of the Province of Quebec; Sir 
Lomer Gouin, Premier of Quebec; Hon. Jacob M. Dickinson, Secretary 
of War; Hon. Elihu Root, U. S. Senator; His Eminence Cardinal 
Gibbons, and the Honorables D. J. Foster, H. Wallace Knapp, George 
R. Malby, Frank Plumley, John Raines, Edwin A. Merritt, Jr., and 
Captain A. W. Butt, U. S. A. 



234 State of New York 

Chairman Knapp, of the New York Commission, presented the toast' 
master of the occasion in the following words: 

Chairman Knapp — Gentlemen: While we have commemorated 
to-day the historical events of the struggle between the Kingdom of 
Great Britain and the United States, this section of the country is a part of 
the great State of New York, and as we turn from the history of the 
vast north, you will agree with me that the toastmaster should be the 
distinguished Governor of the State, whom I now present to you, the 
Honorable Charles E. Hughes. (Great applause.) 

Governor Hughes at Hotel Champlain 

Governor HuGHES — Mr. Chairman, Mr. President, Distinguished Guests, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: The State of New York bids you welcome. With its 
population of nine millions and unsurpassed resources, it turns to-day from the 
problems of a crowded present to bask in the light of sentiment and romance. We 
have been tracing our history and our civihzation to their sources. We have learned, 
in the eloquent discourse of our Senator, of the " Long House," and that the poor 
Indian has been our saviour. We have followed the intrepid navigator on his 
voyage of discovery, and we have shown honor to a peerless name. We have traced 
the history of conflict between nations, the development of a new country, the estab- 
lishment of a new nation. 

Here in this Httle northeastern nook of the United States we have been talking of 
a great highway — a gateway to the Continent — discovered 300 years ago. Two 
years ago at Jamestown we pictured the early English settlements and heard dignified 
and inspiring discourse upon the influence of England on our development. Later 
in the Fall we shall trace the voyage of the Half Moon and the work of the Dutch 
in laying the foundations of New Amsterdam. Out on the Pacific Coast, they are 
at this moment taking count of the trails of pioneers, of the wonderful venture- 
someness of those scions of the nations that peopled the eastern coast, and, with little 
thought of our Tercentenary, are portraying the wonders of our resources in Alaska. 
And so the thought comes to me at this time of the great united people of which we, 
in the State of New York, where we are having this celebration, are but a fraction. 
(Applause.) The discovery of Champlain, the voyage of Hudson, the historic con- 
flicts of England and of France, seen in the light of our present development, touched 
only at the rim. Spreading over this great domain are a people linked together by 
bonds not forged by interests of a material nature, but by that oneness of spirit and 



The Champlain Tercentenary 235 



that community of ideals which make us despite the extent of our territory and the 
variety of origin a most closely united people, (Applause.) It is true that we have 
in one sense no national press. There are no papers published in any one place 
influencing the opinion of the entire country. It is also true that we are lacking 
certain conditions which have been deemed essential to unity. We are proud of our 
local communities; of our States. Even in our villages and cities we nourish a 
wholesome local patriotism. But whether you are at Seattle or Jamestown, at 
Plattsburgh or New York City — and I hope even at Burlington — (laughter) you 
will find that the sentiment uppermost is not that of attachment to a State or to any 
village or city, but that the dominating sentiment is that of American unity. 
(Applause.) And so this is a national celebration. We are not thinking of our 
ownership of a part of this land, nor of the particular relation of the discovery of 
our State. We are thinking of the relation of that discovery to the beginning of 
our national history. 

Now, we find, particularly in tariff discussions, that we are divided by a thou- 
sand interests. We find in the different sections of the country, a certain difference 
of views and of perspectives. But there is a center of influence, a unifying repre- 
sentative, one who stands for all the people, without regard to State or section or 
district, one who represents the dominant sentiment — intensely American, indestruc- 
tibly patriotic — one who, before the American people, incarnates their ideal of 
executive authority, freely granted and responsibly exercised, the President of the 
United Stales. (Applause.) 

President Taft — Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: I have the toast, "The 
United States," not the Toastmaster; but he has spoken so well, and covered so 
much of the subject, that it leaves but little for me to say. In turn, however, I will 
take up " The State of New York." (Laughter.) I want to congratulate the 
State of New York on the success of this great memorial. (Applause.) The 
foreign affairs of the United States are committed to the central Government; but 
the State of New York and the State of Vermont have in this instance taken a 
step which will prove, and is proving, most important in our foreign relations. They 
have strengthened the bond that exists between the United States and Great Britain, 
the United States and France, and the United States and Canada. (Applause.) 

I congratulate the State of New York in having introduced three or four days of 
vacation — a siesta, as we call it in Spain. We are in the habit of criticising our 
Spanish and Italian friends for having too many holidays. I think we may err in 
that matter. I don't think we have enough holidays in the United States, and I am 
glad that the Empire State is setting the fashion to have more of them, though I could 
wish they did not come three in succession. Whenever you get a difficulty between 



236 State of New York 



the two States as to a boundary line, you appeal to the Federal jurisdiction to help 
you out; you go to the Supreme Court. I am anticipating some discussion as to 
where that monument to Champlain is going to be put (laughter), and I am going 
to suggest that if you can't agree — that is, if the two Governors, or the two Legis- 
latures cannot agree, you submit it to a board of arbitration of the two Ambassadors, 
one from Great Britain and one from France and the chief Executive of the United 
States (applause), and we will agree to suit nobody. (Laughter.) 

Secondly, I want, on behalf of the Government of the United States, to thank 
sincerely those gentlemen soldiers of the Scotch Highland regiment of Montreal, who 
did us the honor to come here to-day and make part of that most noteworthy military 
review, and who showed their kindness, their neighborly feeling, by becoming a part 
of a military force in command of a United States Colonel, and making such a 
display as would bring credit to any military command. (Applause.) 

The British Ambassador himself referred to the applause with which the " red- 
coats " were received as they went by (Voices: " Hear! " " Hear! ") I am 
delighted to say that his interpretation of that as a sincere welcome was a true one. 
I hope that such exhibitions of neighborly feeling and of united peaceful action may 
continue to grow, not only on this side, but on the other side of the line, not only 
in New York, but in Vermont and in other states. (Applause.) 

And now, to the subject which has been assigned me — " The United States " — 
a very large one, and one which could hardly be covered so late at night. I think 
it is not too much to say that those who have studied our country and our civilization 
and our Constitution and our people will reach the conclusion that there is no country 
in the world more conservative than the Government of the United States. 
(Applause.) In view of the changes which are taking place in government; in 
view of the new doctrines which are being advanced of a socialistic character, I 
think that is one of the most important things to emphasize with reference to the 
United States. (Applause.) I don't mean to say that we are not progressive in 
the sense that we intend to keep up with the procession in a development which shall 
work more and more justice to all; but I do mean to say that the long-continued 
training of a people in self-government is certain to produce a conservatism that 
cannot be expected in a people that are newly come to self-government, and who 
suffer more violent reactions on that account. (Applause.) Not that we are perfect 
in the United States; not that we don't need a great many reforms. I can mention 
one that always comes to my mind, and that is the necessity of reform in the adminis- 
tration of the original law. But when you look back and see the progress that we 
have made in many directions, I think we may congratulate ourselves in living in an 



The Champlain Tercentenary 237 



age in which we are making progress, in which the people are more sensitive than 
they ever were before to the criticisms that we are not holding ourselves up to the 
right ideals. 

There will come undoubtedly, as our country becomes more and more populated, 
as others press upon us, the necessity for the conservation of our resources. Sug- 
gestions are already emphatically made upon that subject. There will come a test 
of the practical operation of our system of State and National Government. And 
it will doubtless be found that at times that system does not work as well to accom- 
plish the reforms we are after as a system in which the Federal Government had 
much more power, and it may be that in some directions it will be found necessary 
to enlarge somewhat the central power; but I have an abiding faith in the Con- 
stitution of the United States as it is — (applause), marvellously framed by that 
body of patriots and lawyers and statesmen, in simple language, bearing an elastic 
construction to meet conditions that they, in their wildest imagination, could not have 
foreseen. (Applause.) And therefore, while in some comparatively unimportant 
matters we may have to change that relation, I feel certain that the Constitution 
as it is will furnish to us the instrument of continuing the growth of the United States 
in the right direction towards our highest ideals and permit us still to maintain that 
system, difficult for others to understand, but which we ourselves love, that indestruc- 
tible union of indestructible States. (Applause.) 

Governor HuGHES — I very much regret that the one who was to be our next 
speaker, is detained at Washington by his duty as Presiding Officer of the Senate — 
our esteemed fellow citizen held by the Long House. This is a time that the Long 
House has proved a barrier to our enjoyment; but we send our hearty wishes and 
good will to the Honorable James S. Sherman. (Applause.) We have been 
hearing much this week of New France. We have paid our tribute to the France of 
Henry — Henry of Navarre, and to the strong, brave Champlain. We have paid 
our tribute to the chivalrous spirit, the daring and indomitable energy of Montcalm. 
We can never forget what we owe to the France of La Fayette (applause), but 
whatever may have been the influence of New France, and however interesting the 
discussion in the Old World, of the rise and fall of New France, and of the 
permanent influence that remains despite its failure so far as national control may 
be concerned, we know this; that the representative of latest France has captured 
the American people. (Applause.) He represents our sister Republic, the newest 
France — Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. For two days we have been under his 
charm and indebted to his eloquence; and we are highly honored to-night that once 
more we meet here with one whom we esteem first because he represents our old 



238 State of New York 



friend and ally, and next because he so worthily represents, in his own person, the 
culture, the ability and the charm of the French people — Ambassador Jusserand. 
(Applause.) 

Ambassador JusSERAND — Mr. President, your Excellencies, and Centlemen: 
The France of to-day has for America the feelings of the France of former times, 
with this difference only, that as America has grown greater France has grown 
greater, too. in friendship. I am very happy to have to answer the admirable toast 
of His Excellency the Governor of the State of New York, and to say that while 
the French flag has been sometimes triumphant, sometimes not, it has always been 
honored; it is not without emotion that I see it, in this hall, surrounded by the 
emblem of that Republic ever dear to us, the United States, and by the emblem of 
that other friendly country, England. (Applause.) Those three flags mean much, 
and they mean, among other things to us, a manly aspiration towards individual 
liberty, the will to preserve for each man the right to shape his own destiny, choose 
his own ways in life and to say his say on what concerns the country to which he 
belongs and which reciprocally (a fact which in former days was lost sight of) 
belongs to him. (Applause.) 

The friendship of France you have, you American friends, and you too, English 
friends, you have it, and I know you consider it worth having, because France, 
contrary to what is sometimes said of her, is not a flighty but a steady nation. She 
is not without some resemblance with her own son whom we are honoring to-day, 
Champlain. 

Champlain was not a flighty man; it was not by being a flighty man that he 
gained his place in your hearts and in history. He was a plain, straightforward 
pioneer, a man of conscience, doing his duty to the best of his ability. He did it 
indeed against the strong and he did it in favor of the weak all his life, saving from 
torture, when he could, some of his Iroquois enemies. 

A good trait in him as a discoverer was that he recognized that this land was not 
one to be simply visited, or simply exploited, but one to be colonized. He recognized 
that it was a good country where honest people could live and rear families, and 
great credit is due to him for having brought his family to America and lived with 
them in Quebec. 

There Champlain died, and contrary to Montcalm, who ended his life there, loo, 
he had, on his last day, the consolation of knowing that he had done durable work. 
He had founded a city, a very small one at first, so small that during one of its 
first years, there were only 28 inhabitants in it, and when the winter was over, there 
were only eight left. But when he died that city was a real city, a fine one in a 
fair way to become the superb one which we all know and admire. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 239 



Champlain achieved these resuhs simply because he was a steady, persistent man; 
he never gave up; he never despaired, and when fate was adverse, simply waited 
and began again. I think that the whole of his career may be summed up in one 
saying of the philosopher Bacon, *' He goes far that never turneth," 

That is true of men, and it is true of nations, too. The fecund friendship between 
the countries represented here to-night will be preserved and it will be rich in happy 
results, because " he goes far that never turneth." 

Governor HuGHES — Whatever may be our sentimental attachments we learned 
our lessons in liberty at our mother's knee. We went to school in England. 
(Applause.) She taught us the principles of self-government. If we conquered 
her armies it was to vindicate her principles. And now she is privileged in seeing 
her child well established in her own home, a fond fruition of her fondest parental 
hopes. It is a very graceful compliment paid by Great Britain to the United States 
when she sends to us her present representative (applause), for he of all men of that 
great empire fully understands us. In former days we were boastful ; now we know 
too much to boast, but we are anxious to be appreciated. There was one who 
bettered the instrument of the past by giving us the most adorable statement that we 
have with regard to our modern life; he told us what we were, he described the 
workings of our institutions; he almost displaced American commentaries and those 
who would philosophise with regard to our development ; he is the foremost instructor 
of our youth; we think of him with difficulty as an Englishman; he recognizes a 
foreign allegiance and stands here to-day representing his sovereign, but he is of 
our hearts, kin to our spirit, in his ideals most truly American, and has a friend in 
every American heart. Ambassador Bryce. (Applause, which spontaneously 
changed to music as the assembly sang " For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.") 

Ambassador BryCE — Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. President, and Gentlemen: I 
thank you, Mr. Toastmaster, for the very kind words that you have spoken about 
me, and I thank the audience present, whom I will venture to call, after an acquain- 
tance of two days in the case of most, and much longer in the case of some — 
friends — I venture to thank you for the cordial welcome you have given to me. 

You have allotted to me a very large subject in " The British Empire." The 
British drum has been heard in a good many parts of the world, and the English 
flag has been seen upon a good many scenes; and in one way or another, by 
discovery or otherwise, we have acquired a considerable part of the earth's surface. 
So have you. (Laughter.) It was, I think, Mark Twain who said that the career 
of the British and American people verify the statement of the Gospel that the meek 
shall inherit the earth. We possess a great many territories of different degrees of 



240 State of New York 



value. Some of them, like Canada, are the homes of great peoples. Some of them, 
like the Antarctic Continent, are valuable as the places in which the strange 
phenomena of terrestrial workings and the magnetic pole may be investigated. We 
have acquired, I need not say, all these places in the interests of peace, order and 
civilization. I do not take any credit for that, gentlemen, because I am aware that 
all nations that have ever acquired territories outside their own have done it from 
the same disinterested and philanthropic motives. (Laughter.) 

But the greatest thing, perhaps, besides our great poets, who were produced at 
the time when you yourself and your ancestors were Englishmen, the thing we most 
desire to be remembered by in history is that we settled the United States, and that 
you and we, your ancestors and our ancestors, when they dwelt upon the same old 
English soil, created those free institutions under which you and we have lived ever 
since. On this occasion, however, instead of singing the praises of my own country 
I prefer rather to pass tribute to what we feel about the two other nations that have 
joined with us in this celebration — or rather the nation which has permitted us to 
join and the other nation which has joined with us. 

We have in England the greatest respect and admiration for the French people. 
We admire the brilliance of their literature. We admire the unequalled gift they 
have shown for the diffusion of ideas among other people. We admire the stimulus 
they have given to intellectual activity and the power they have shown of developing 
and refining intellectual tastes. Time would fail me to say all that Europe, and 
England in particular, owes to the influence of France. And of what you have done 
how can I speak? Of how you have spread civilization with unequalled speed and 
unsurpassed energy over the enormous spaces of this continent; of the wonderful 
series of inventions which you have given to the world, for which the world is 
grateful; and perhaps, most of all, for the way, upon a scale of unequalled grandeur, 
in which you have developed and worked a system of free institutions, and have 
shown the enormous power which free institutions possess of making a country 
strong and prosperous; of reconciling animosities which at one time seemed deadly; 
and in creating out of those who have been bitter foes a united people. (Applause.) 

Commemorations like this, gentlemen, seem to me to have a great value for us all. 
They renew the sense of our connection with the past; they revive in every part of 
the country the associations which every city or country or hamlet ought to have 
with the great events and the great men of by-gone times. They carry us out of 
the narrow range of our own daily thoughts and interests ; they remind us how much 
there is that we have to think of and to live for beyond our business and our amuse- 
ments; and if we are apt at any time, as the President observed this afternoon, to 
be too much elated by our material progress, they serve to remind us when we look 



The Champlain Tercentenary 241 



back over the centuries, when we think of the long past that lies behind, of the 
boundless future that lies before, how small a part we, in our generation, are in the 
general march of things; how we are little more than motes in the sunbeam or 
bubbles that break as they pass upon the stream. That will be the case of nearly 
all of us. The President of the United States, like the rest of that illustrious line, 
will be remembered as long as the United States lasts. (Applause.) And there 
are others. There is one whom we wish could have been here to-day; there is one 
who is beside me for whom I can predict a long memory in politics. I think that 
Mr. Root (applause), as your Senator — you will the more willingly permit me 
to speak of him — in what he has done, has deserved your sympathy and that of 
the people of Latin America; he has earned for himself great renown, and I hope 
he will be commemorated by having cities called after him in Argentina or Brazil, 
and perhaps having some memorial erected to him by those whose fame he vindicated 
to-day. And I think our friend, your Governor, will long be remembered, not 
only in the State of New York, but in this country. (Applause.) We have a 
way in England of paying tribute to great men, which I dare say may be used 
here, though I have not witnessed an example of it. We call race horses after them 
(laughter and applause), but there are many other ways more enduring even than 
the famous sporting circles in which the name and services of Governor Hughes will 
be remembered. 

Gentlemen, in these celebrations we have been holding during the last few days I 
confess that that which appeals to me most is the commemoration of Samuel Cham- 
plain himself. I think he stands out among the discoverers and the conquerers of 
the New World with a singularly spotless fame. He was a man, valiant, brave 
and resourceful, equally competent to wield the sword or pen; a clear-headed and 
right-lhinking man, a God-fearing man, and he was a man of whom France may 
well be proud. But when I come to think of the battles and the sieges and of the 
gallantry shown in them, it seems after all it was hardly necessary to have so much 
fighting in order to prove that Englishmen, whether colonists or of Old England, 
or to prove that Frenchmen, were courageous men; and if I come to think of the 
battles and the sieges, my regret is rather that so much fighting was found necessary; 
and one would be sorry to see these warlike preparations if one thought they tended 
to create a military spirit. I believe, however, that has not been the nature of our 
celebrations here. It has been the reverse. I need say nothing more about our 
relations and your relations to France. That has been admirably dealt with by my 
friend and colleague, the French Ambassador. All I can say is I most heartily 
reciprocate every word of friendship that he has spoken; and I need say nothing 
about your relations to Canada, because I could not possibly improve upon what 
17 



242 State of New York 



has been said. I can do nothing but express my thanks for the words which have 
been used by the President of the United States, words which I am sure will be 
read with delight, both in Canada and in England as voicing the sentiments which 
animate your people toward the people on the north of you; but I do hope this, 
gentlemen, that not only will those sentiments continue, as we feel sure they will, 
between the three peoples that have joined in this celebration, but that our genera- 
tion will go farther, and will try and make some effort that the same peace which 
now happily reigns upon this continent shall reign over the world at large. 
(Applause.) 

A hundred years hence I suppose there will be another celebration of the cen- 
tenary of Samuel Champlain, and crowds thrice as large as those we have seen will 
gather from a country thrice as populous, and then speeches will be made and these 
old recollections will be revived, and then I hope it will be said that our generation 
here and elsewhere, in Europe and Asia, as well as in America, provided no more 
battle-fields to be commemorated; and I hope that those who then meet and speak 
will be able to say that in the 20th century and perhaps within the life time of the 
present generation the clouds of war that sometimes still darken the horizon in 1 909 
had vanished away into the blue, and that battles and sieges were remembered only 
as our poet says, as old, forgotten, far off things, things destined never to recur in 
a wiser and gentler and a more enlightened age. 

Governor HuGHES — When we saw pass in review to-day the Foot Guards of 
the Governor-General of Canada — the magnificent array of the Highlanders — 
we did not think that we were watching the armed force of a foreign power. I 
must say, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the State of New 
York, that the thought was in my mind, how the National Guard would look in a 
uniform like that (laughter). We were friends watching those who represented 
to us the panoply of peace, the guarantees of our common prosperity. Over that 
boundary line which marks no distinction in our ideals, are men of restless energy, 
winning an empire from the snows — a strong, hearty race, whom we recognize as 
brethren. We learn from them; they may learn from us. And without thought 
on either side of interference with the political destinies of the other, we are rivals 
only in enterprise and in cordial friendship. (Applause.) I now have the pleasure 
of introducing the representative of the Governor-General of the Dominion of 
Canada, the Postmaster-General of Canada, the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux. (Great 
applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 243 



Toast: " Canada " 

Honorable RoDOLPHE Lemieux — Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency), Ladies 
and Gentlemen: I must, in the first place, thank you most cordially for giving me the 
opportunity of being present on this most interesting occasion. It is one of those 
occasions that bind peoples together and promote international amity and good-fel- 
lowship, and I regard it as a high honor as well as a pleasure to occupy a small place 
in your important programme. If for no other reason than that it afforded an oppor- 
tunity of meeting the chief magistrate of your great republic it would be a memora- 
ble day. Not that President Taft is indeed a stranger to me, or to the people of 
Canada generally. Next to the heads of our own government, we in Canada are 
interested in the great man who is chosen by popular vote every four years to preside 
over the destinies of ninety millions of our kinsmen. We regard your proceedings 
on these remarkable occasions as amongst the grandest object lessons contained in 
history of the wise and judicious use made by freemen of their freedom, and to be 
equalled only by the smoothness and facility with which our own governmental 
machinery, modelled along somewhat different lines, enables us also to choose our 
rulers and to control our destiny. Thus it is that we have learned to know Mr. 
Taft almost as though we were his own countrymen, and to admire and respect 
him no less. We have followed his great career as counsel, judge, diplomat, 
statesman, and rejoiced with you when his long services to the state and to human- 
ity won for him the highest gift it is in the power of any people to bestow. 

Now, as to the celebration itself. Need I say what a special pride I feel in the 
fact that my ancestors came from that same land of chivalry and song that sent forth 
the great navigator who three centuries ago sailed, first among the white men of the 
world, the waters of this beautiful lake. A year ago we in Canada celebrated the 
foundation by Samuel de Champlain of the ancient city of Quebec, which thus 
became the mother city of the present Dominion. You will not wonder that we in 
Canada were proud and glad to do honor to Champlain's memory, that Canadians 
of English and French blood united to pay enthusiastic tribute to the intrepid French 
mariner who had been the founder of a nation. How can we be other than proud 
of a man who fathered and cherished an infant colony as he fathered and cherished 
the tiny community of Quebec? How can we but admire and marvel at the pluck 
and persistence of the man who crossed the Atlantic ocean twenty times in days 
when one such passage was a thrilling adventure, sailing not in luxurious liners with 
elaborate menus and electric light and daily newspapers and wireless telegrams 
throughout a short six-day voyage, but in tiny cockleshells of 60 or 80 tons, and 
amid all the personal discomfort and risk that such navigation entailed. Whether 



244 State of New York 



we view him as explorer, missionary, soldier, statesman, or even as historian, Cham- 
plain will always remain one of the great figures of American history. No man 
foresaw more clearly than he the vastness of America's destiny. 

It is natural, too, and right that the people of the United States and of Canada 
should come together in such a celebration. Their histories have been interwoven 
from the beginning, and their relations have been of the closest and most intimate 
character. It was from the United States somewhat over a century ago that we 
received the first considerable addition to our population, a gallant band of immigrants 
who laid the foundation of the English stock of Canada. Time passed on and a 
generation or so ago your new and fertile west proved a magnet to scores of thou- 
sands of sturdy and progressive young Canadians from Ontario, while at the same 
time the great manufacturing cities of New England drew off many thousands more 
of our people from Quebec and from our provinces down by the sea. We were 
returning with interest the loan of population you had originally made to us. 

These same Canadians, we are proud to remember, have entered every walk of 
life in your country and have everywhere acquitted themselves well. To-day they 
constitute one of the most important elements in your great population. 

Now it is the Canadian star which is again in the ascendant, and the movement 
of population is once more from you to us. A welcome stream of settlers began five 
or six years ago to trickle from your west across the boundary line into the newly 
opened prairie lands of Canada, and the stream grew from year to year until it 
became during the last year or two a mighty torrent which is continuing still to flood 
our vast vacant west with well-to-do and experienced settlers at the rate of fifty, sixty 
and seventy thousand a year. Is it surprising that under such circumstances, with 
such an ebb and flow of population our relations should be close, that we should 
know each other with an intimacy which but rarely exists between neighboring 
peoples? 

Are there elsewhere in the world two states where there is such international 
intercourse of every kind as between the United States and Canada, such marrying 
and giving in marriage, such interchange of friendly visits, such borrowing and 
lending between banks; such courtesies between newspapers, such similarity of social 
method and commercial outlook, such bonds of unity in thought and speech, in 
reading and religion, in all in fact that goes to make the sum of our life from day 
to day and from year to year, as between our people and your people? Those 
relations have never been more cordial, more wholly happy than they are at the 
present time. In a general way I do not know that there is room for improvement, 
but we on our side at least are determined that they shall never be less happy than 
to-day. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 245 



Commercially, certainly there is room for expansion, and expansion there is 
bound to be of the widest character. When we reflect that there are to-day seven 
millions of people in Canada who live in almost every respect as you live in the 
United States, and who, taken in the mass, are as comfortable and as prosperous 
as any equal number of people in the world, it is not a wildly impossible idea that 
we should buy from you to the extent of say $50 per head per annum. That 
would still be a very small fraction of our annual outlay, and if we buy from you 
to that extent then surely we should sell to you in somewhat the same proportion, 
and buying and selling to the extent of $50 a head of 7,000,000 people would 
represent a total trading of nearly $700,000,000. Last year our total trade with 
you was $324,169,425, and two-thirds of it was what we bought from you. 
You will agree, I am sure, that there is room for expansion here, an expansion which 
would mean an increase in the commerce and prosperity of both countries and an 
even greater intimacy than at present. For you cannot trade wdth people without 
knowing them; and you cannot quarrel with those with whom you do extensive 
business — it does not pay. So let us have trade and friendship and harmony 
without end, as befits two enlightened races of a common stock, a common tongue 
and a common literature. Such matters of difference — nay, I will not say 
" difference," such matters of regulation as there must be between us we shall 
refer as a matter of course to arbitration, as we are doing to-day — we have 
signed five treaties with you during the year and a sixth is under consideration — 
and each new arbitration, each new treaty shall be but a new bond of amity 
between us. 

I am not sure that it may not be said, it has at least been suggested by some 
students of history, that we in Canada owe to you of the United States in a measure 
our first symptoms of national life. Your great revolution caused a new outlook 
on affairs for all concerned, and our earliest form of self-government in Canada, 
far back in 1 79 1 , followed hard upon your own establishment as a republic. It 
is hard to trace the workings of history, but doubtless your own epoch-making 
struggle, guided by the giant minds of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, 
had its influence on the new Canadian colonies that had lately passed from the 
possession of France to that of Britain. Then at any rate were planted the seeds 
of the broad confederation which to-day stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
Then it was that we made our first step in self-government, to be followed as time 
passed, not without passing here and there over rough ground, by other steps, which 
secured us the fullest control of our own internal affairs. 

The difficult question of fiscal powers was soon afterwards settled once and for 
all, in what we know now to have been the only possible way, by the concession of 



246 State of New York 



absolute fiscal independence, an independence which included of necessity the right 
of putting the parent country on a level with all other countries with respect to 
taxation, but an independence of which we have made use for a number of years 
to give a preference in our markets to goods from the mother land. 

Then came the crown of the political edifice, the confederation of our scattered 
provinces, and then at last, some two score years ago, your northern neighbor was 
fairly started on its career as a nation. 

You have heard somewhat from us since those days. Time does not permit that 
on the present occasion I should enter too much into detail or attempt to place before 
you a complete picture of the Canada of to-day, but since my toast is " Canada " 
I shall be pardoned for dwelling for a moment in conclusion on what we are doing 
and intend to do in the way of developing this wonderful heritage that has passed 
under our control. For over twenty years a great Transcontinental Railway has 
bound the remote East to the remote West, and has been a great artery of com- 
merce and travel and enlightenment, a revelation to our own people and to all the 
world of our wealth of territory and our vastness of opportunity. Twenty years 
ago we believed one such railway the climax of effort. We were half afraid at 
what we had done. We hardly realized the strength that lay in our boundless 
resources. Now we have changed all that. Years of prosperous development have 
given us confidence and assurance. Instead of being satisfied — almost more than 
satisfied — with our Transcontinental Railway, we wanted a second and a third, 
and trains are running to-day on the three of them. In a year or two the three 
bands of steel, with innumerable feeding and connecting lines, will lace our broad 
northern land with a network of railways. We have made homes for hundreds of 
thousands of settlers from the old world, for scores of thousands of settlers, as I 
have said, from your ovm country. We have built populous and prosperous cities 
by the score on lands which twenty years ago, ten years ago, in some cases even 
five years ago, were unknown to any but the explorer or the trapper. We have 
made great seaports on the Pacific Ocean; we propose now to make a seaport in 
the middle of the continent and carry our grain by salt water from the wheat 
fields to Liverpool. And we know that we are only at the beginning of our possi- 
bilities, that there is practically no limit to what we may achieve, to the height to 
which we may rise, to the contribution we may make to human happiness, if we 
have but faith in ourselves, and seek to accomplish the destiny that manifestly 
awaits us. We can do nothing of all this unless we work in harmony and co-opera- 
tion with yourselves, our great neighbor, whose example has done so much to 
stimulate our best efforts. Working side by side for the same high ideals, inherited 



The Champlain Tercentenary 247 



equally from an ancestry and a literature in which we have a common interest and 
pride, we cannot fail, each under the flag we honor and love, to promote the true 
welfare of our people and to advance the happiness of mankind. (Applause.) 

Governor HuGHES — We cannot close this celebration without paying special 
tribute to the land of Champlain — the scene of his first efforts at colonization, 
the scene of his first discovery, the land of thrift and prosperity, where the people, 
secure in their new allegiance, still fondly cherish the traditions of the past. I 
introduce as representing the Province of Quebec the Honorable Lomer Gouin, 
Premier of Quebec. 

Toast: " The Province of Quebec." 

Sir Lx)MER Gouin — It is always a pleasure to the people of the Province 
of Quebec to visit with their neighbors of the adjoining Republic, whether in our 
own country or in yours. We are delighted to have you visit us, and we feel 
perfectly at home in visiting you. In fact, to listen to the applause with which 
you have received the toast of the Province of Quebec, I can almost imagine that 
I am still amongst my own people in the old City of Champlain. 

In the name of my fellow citizens I thank the organizers of this banquet for the 
delicate compliment they have paid them in placing the name of the Province which 
I represent here to-night upon the list of toasts. The thought no doubt occurred 
to them, as well as to all of you who applauded their sentiment, that there was an 
appropriate place in this demonstration for a province whose territory was at one 
time comprised in the vast domain of New France founded and governed by 
Champlain three hundred years ago. 

We have all read something of the history of those feudal times which tells of 
the heroic deeds wrought upon the fringes of ancient empires. The inhabitants of 
those military frontiers prided themselves upon the part played by their respective 
localities as chosen fields of military conflict, forming as they did the periodical 
battle grounds of contending armies. 

No other part of the American continent, perhaps, recalls those series of border 
conflicts of olden times as does the valley of Lake Champlain. In fact for more 
than two centuries it was the highway for invasions of every kind, the theatre of epic 
wars — first of all between the Indians and the heralds of civilization, then between 
rival European powers contending for supremacy of this continent, and later still, 
between colonies struggling for their emancipation and independence of old world 
rule. Everything on these enchanting shores speaks of an heroic past; the very 
air that we breathe is impregnated with glorious souvenirs. 



248 State of New York 



But as I understand it, gentlemen, these splendid demonstrations in which we 
have participated have not been organized for the purpose of resounding in our 
ears the warlike notes of former combats, so much as to commemorate and to exalt 
an entirely pacific exploit — the discovery by Champlain of the magnificent lake 
which bears his name. 

To mention Champlain is to name the herald of Christian and French civilization 
in North America; it is to name the father of the Canadian nation. To name 
Champlain is to name the prince of the pioneers of my country, the founder of the 
capital of my province. Happy, indeed then, am I, to take part in these imposing 
demonstrations of honor to his glorious memory. 

France, which was the cradle of his family, honored in him the enterprising and 
intrepid mariner who hewed for her a kingdom out of the solitudes of the New 
World. Canada, by a series of never-to-be-forgotten fetes, glorified in him, last 
year, the founder of the Canadian nation. To-day the great American Republic 
claims him for one of her own, and honors him for having been the first to explore 
Lake Champlain and its magnificent shores. Champlain is worthy of all those 
honors, of the homage rendered him by these three different nations; for his work 
belongs to the world at large. 

The truly great men are not those who destroy, who sow ruin along the high- 
ways of history, but are rather those who establish and spread life and activity in 
the solitary and desert places of the earth. Now Champlain was above all, and 
before all, a founder. Very far in the advance guard of the pioneers of his race 
he planted the names of Christ and of France in the northern part of this continent 
for the future harvest of humanity. Looking far ahead of his time, he was not 
content to work for his own day and generation, but embraced in his far-seeing 
vision, and in his far-reaching plans and labors, the welfare of the centuries that 
are yet unborn. 

I am not going to describe the career of Champlain. The orators who have 
preceded me have eloquently made his eulogy, and I have really nothing to add, 
except that his entire life and work may be summed up in these two words: idealism 
and perseverance. 

An idealist he was, this bold sailor and indefatigable discoverer, with his eyes 
turned towards the unknown, the unexplored, the future. 

A persevering soul, Champlain was too, and beyond all expression! Others 
might exhaust themselves in more desires, or in putting forth certain feeble efforts 
to attain their ends; but he knew that the important point was not simply to desire 
for one day, but to persist every day, and to increase in determination in proportion 
to the difficulties with which he had to contend. Active, courageous, inured to 



The Champlain Tercentenary 249 



suffering, he struggled day by day against the obstacles of all kinds that surged in 
his way, and, aided by the genius of his patience, attained ultimate success. Never 
was it better illustrated that the world belongs to the persevering and to those who 
never cease to press forward to the highest and noblest ideals that can be set 
before them. 

Without doubt, gentlemen, the glory that crowns the name of Champlain is the 
well-merited recompense of his works and of his virtues. But if we would par- 
ticipate in his glory, we must imitate his example. If we wish to be considered his 
true descendants we must follow the road he has traced for us, and see to it 
that we do not degenerate from his virtues. 

Citizens of the United States: I shall not preach idealism and perseverance to 
you ; not long ago an eminent publicist said of you that you " are always faced 
towards the future," and that you are " a living lesson of national energy." But 
as to-day is a holiday, permit me, on behalf of the Province of Quebec which you 
have so signally and so generously honored to-night, as well as on my behalf, to 
offer you, Mr. President, and to all the citizens of the United States, our very best 
wishes for your future success, prosperity and happiness. May you always merit 
the flattering compliment so lately paid you by the publicist to whom I have referred, 
and may you continue to show to other nations new roads to progress and to its 
harvest of glory. (Applause.) 

The responsibility of the anteprandial arrangements for the State 
banquet rested largely on Senator James J. Frawley and Assemblyman 
James A. Foley of the Banquet Committee and members of the Com- 
mission from New York city. It was a stately banquet eminently con- 
ducted for such a diplomatic occasion. 

The postprandial exercises were of a remarkably high order of literary 
merit and thoroughly appreciated by the four hundred and fifty guests. At 
this banquet were distinguished speakers officially representing three great 
nations, whose high ideals and true grandeur were impressively exemplified 
in the scholarly and eloquent addresses delivered on this and other occa- 
sions during the celebration. Intellectual and moral culture, imbued with 
the spirit of genuine patriotism, pervaded all the literary exercises, which 
abounded in cordial expressions of amity and good will. Thus did the 
Champlain Tercentenary contribute something towards universal peace, 
•♦ * * * 3 consummation 
Devoutly to be wish'd * * * " 
by all civilized nations. 



VI. THURSDAY. JULY 8: AT BURLINGTON 

251 



VI. THURSDAY. JULY 8: AT BURLINGTON 

The following day, Thursday, July 8th, the scene of the festivities 
shifted to Burlington. This, the chief city of Vermont, had for months 
been making elaborate preparations and had arranged an independent 
programme of festivities and exercises covering the entire Champlain week. 
The $10,000 which the city had voted for the purpose had been more 
than doubled by individual subscriptions. This fund was chiefly used 
in decorating the streets and in providing prizes for various amusement 
features, including regattas of several kinds on the lake, competitive drills 
by uniformed companies of fraternal societies, band concerts, athletic 
sports, and other diversions. The citizens with great zeal shared in the 
preparations. By day the business streets and principal residences were 
beautifully draped with flags and bunting, by night the town was ablaze 
with the most elaborate installation of electric Hghting ever attempted in 
the region. Some 25,000 electric lights were installed by one con- 
tracting company, along the principal streets. Most attractive of all 
were the natural beauties of Burlington's shaded thoroughfares and 
pleasant homes, set amid well kept grounds. 

The local programme was adapted to the general programme of the 
joint Champlain Commissions. By this arrangement Sunday, July 4th, 
was generally observed in the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches 
and especially, as has been noted, with open-air vespers services at 4 
o'clock. 

Monday was really the Independence Day celebration, its features 
including decorated automobile parades, airship ascensions, military and 
civic parades with floats and review of troops, band concerts, races and 
fireworks. Tuesday, July 6th, was almost as generally observed as a 
holiday, being devoted to the celebration of French societies. A grand 
street parade of local and visiting organizations was reviewed by Mayor 

253 



254 State of New York 

Burke and the Board of Aldermen. Sports, band concerts, and an illumi- 
nated boat parade followed by fireworks filled out the day. 

Much interest was taken on this day in the Tercentenary regatta, the 
programme of races being carried out under the auspices of the Lake 
Champlain Yacht Club with $1,600 in prize cups. Contests included 
competition for open motor boats of various classes, for cabin cruisers and 
other cabin boats, and two classes of sailing races for sail yachts. There 
were also rowing, canoe, swimming and other contests. 

Wednesday, the 7th, was called Patriotic and Fraternal Society Day. 
The main feature of its observance was a great parade of fraternal 
organizations with floats followed by a competitive drill. 

Thursday, the 8th of July, was designated as President's Day, and on 
this day the exercises formed a part of the general programme arranged 
by the Champlain Commissions. The President of the United States, 
the foreign ambassadors and other official guests arrived by boat at 10 
o'clock in the morning. They were met at the wharf by the Vermont 
division of the National Guard, Col. J. Grey Esty commanding, and 
were escorted to City Hall Park where literary exercises were held, over 
which Governor Prouty, chairman of the Vermont Champlain Com- 
mission, presided. 

It was one of the most interesting scenes which had been presented to 
the distinguished guests during the entire celebration. The little park in 
which the exercises took place is surrounded on all sides by buildings. 
Burlington claims only about 20,000 inhabitants, but during the speaking 
probably twice that number were gathered in the park enclosure, which 
seemed like a great hall without a roof. Everywhere shaded by the 
beautiful elms, which are a source of pride to Burlington, the scene 
was enlivened by the color of some fifty great American flags hung from 
wires stretched from tree to tree. 

The appearance on the platform of one quickly recognized guest after 
another was the signal for repeated applause. When the President 
ascended the steps the entire throng seemed to join in cheers of greeting, 
to which with manifest pleasure he responded with many bows and 



The Champlain Tercentenary 255 



smiles. The presence here of the Canadian Governor-General's Foot 
Guards in their brilliant uniform was to many of the rural people a great 
novelty and gave a pleasant international character to the occasion. 
Nowhere else had there been more manifest a genuine spirit of comrade- 
ship and good-fellowship. When order was secured and the many 
bands of music had been hushed, the President's impromptu reception 
on the grandstand was brought to a close, and Gov. Prouty introduced 
the Rt. Rev. Arthur C. A. Hall, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Diocese of Vermont, who pronounced an invocation. 

After a happy introduction and welcome to all, distinguished guests 
and townspeople alike, the Governor concluded in these words : 

Vermont's Official Welcome: Governor Prouty 

I now, on behalf of the State of Vermont, welcome our most distinguished 
citizen, the President of the United States. (Long continued applause.) I thank 
you, ladies and gentlemen. That is better than anything I can say, but it is 
extremely fitting that our President should come back to the home of his fore- 
fathers, and we welcome him as at least part a Vermonter. We appreciate the 
distinguished honor which you have done us, Mr. President, and I can assure you, 
ladies and gentlemen, that it is only because the President is anxious to be with 
us that he is here, for I am sure he has been called away, but has refused to 
go. We ought therefore to appreciate his presence. (Applause.) 

To the representative of the French Government, I wish to extend a cordial 
greeting (applause), and to extend to him the thanks of this State for coming here 
at this time to represent that nation that has been so intimately acquainted with 
the history of the State, the nation which produced this great discoverer, Samuel 
Champlain, that we come here to honor to-day. And to the British Ambassador 
I wish to extend my thanks and a welcome from the State of Vermont (applause), 
thanks for his presence, and to his government for having sent to us such a dis- 
tinguished gentleman as Ambassador Bryce. 

And to those ladies and gentlemen who have come to us from our near neighbor, 
Canada, the neighbor that we have all learned to love and respect, I say I thank 
you. We welcome you most cordially to the State. We do it because we are 
neighbors and because we want to become better acquainted. (Applause.) 

I am not going to detain you longer, because I know you want to hear somebody 
else, but it is fitting at this time that the City of Burlington should extend a welcome, 



256 State of New York 



and because of that I am going to ask Mayor Burke for a moment to give a wel- 
come to our guests — Mayor Burke. (Applause.) 

Burlington's Welcome: Mayor Burke 

Mayor BuRKE — Ladies and Gentlemen: This certainly is a most magnificent 
thing to witness from this platform here to-day, this large assemblage of people, 
but I want to say to you, ladies and gentlemen, no matter if it was a hundred, yea, 
a thousand times larger, it would be only in keeping with the event and the persons 
we have present with us here to-day as our guests. To me has been assigned the 
pleasant duty to extend a hearty welcome to our guests and the people assembled 
here to-day, and I want to say, representing, as I do, the people of the city of 
Burlington, that to you, Mr. President, our most worthy ruler, I do on their behalf, 
extend to you a most cordial greeting and welcome you to the foremost city of the 
State. (Applause.) And also to you, representatives of other governments, 
who have seen fit to honor us and grace us with your presence I also extend a 
cordial welcome on this occasion. And to all other guests here, no matter from 
where they come, I extend this cordial welcome. And to you, ladies and gentle- 
men, I also extend, in behalf of the citizens of Burlington, a cordial welcome to 
our city on this occasion. 

The last 300 years represent a period of discovery, conquest and development. 
On the fourth day of July, 1 609, the great Champlain discovered what I believe 
to be the most beautiful body of water whose ripples in response to the gentle breeze 
were ever kissed by the sun-light. The importance of the discovery of these beautiful 
waters is considered of so much importance that our own dear Vermont, and the 
great Empire State across the water, have seen fit to join together and help cele- 
brate the anniversary of this great event in a befitting manner. 

Three hundred years ago the only craft that appeared upon these beautiful 
waters was the Indian canoe. To-day floating palaces have supplanted the canoe 
of the Indian; to-day along these beautiful shores, beautiful cities and villages have 
supplanted the camping ground and the wigwam of the Indian. To-day, ladies 
and gentlemen, a high state of civilization tempered by uplifting Christianity has 
taken the place of the barbarous custom and lives of the Indian, and speaking 
from a broader sense, as it affects our Government at large I want to say, and I 
think I have a right to say it along the lines of development, to-day this great nation 
stands without a peer among the nations of the world in all those things which make 
a nation great. (Applause.) Is it any wonder then, when we stop to contem- 
plate this great progress and development made during the last 300 years, that 
we should assemble here together, to help celebrate in a fitting manner that great 








President Tah, Governor Prouty, An 



bassadors Jusserand and Bryce, Governor Hughes, Admiral Uriu and 
Hon. Seth Low 



The Champlain Tercentenary 257 



event? Notwithstanding the fact that this progress and development during the 
last 300 years has been of material benefit, not only to the people of this country, 
but the whole world, I believe that our mission is only just begun; I believe that 
while notwithstanding the fact that the past is bright in achievements of this country, 
I believe the future is to be brighter yet; I believe that the destiny of this great 
nation of ours is to continue on and lead in the achievements of those great things 
which make for the material advancement and the uplifting of the human race of 
the whole world. (Applause.) 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, speaking from a local standpoint, I want to call 
your attention to a certain project which I believe means much to this section of the 
country. It is no other than the deep waterway project. I believe that is to come, 
and I believe it is my duty and that I have a right to take the opportunity that 
presents itself to me from this platform to-day to just say a word in regard to that 
great project. That great project means much to this section of the country, and 
while the benefits may be of a different nature, there is one particularly that I wish 
to speak of to-day, and it is this: by the completion of that great project it will 
have as one of the benefits derived — the connecting of the metropolis of our 
friends to the north, Canada, with the great metropolis of the United States, New 
York City; and one of the results will be that it will have a tendency to further 
strengthen those ties which bind us to the people across the line. What do we see 
to-day? We see to-day soldiers of England, and soldiers of the United States 
marching side by side in our streets. It means much, and why? Simply because 
in days gone by the predecessors of those very men have met on many a field in 
the past in deadly conflict. To-day they march side by side as friends, a condition 
which I hope and believe is to last for all time. (Applause.) It is only a few 
short years ago on a similar occasion — when the news flashed over the wire, giving 
an account of the great Dewey victory in Manila Bay — that the predecessors of 
these same soldiers were here as our guests, and I want to say to you that no 
cheers were given on that day any louder in honor of the great victory than were 
given by guests from across the line. (Applause.) 

I told you a few moments ago that I believed I had a right to take advantage 
of the opportunity that presented itself to me to-day, and I am going to do it in 
this way. I have already extended a welcome to each and every one of you. I 
am going to repeat it, and I want to say to you, Mr. President, and you representa- 
tives of the different countries and invited guests, I invite you now to be once again 
our guests when we will again assemble here, to help celebrate that great event, the 
making of these beautiful waters the connecting link in this great deep waterway 
project, at a time which I hope will not be in the far distant future, but on or before 
18 



258 State of New York 



the year 1919. Ladles and gentlemen, I think I have said enough. I would like 
to talk on and on. but it will not do; there are others here; but there is one other 
thing that I want to say. I have already given you a cordial and hearty welcome. 
I want to say in closing, enjoy yourselves while you are here to the fullest extent. 
I extend to you the freedom of the city, and I hope that each and every one, and 
you, Mr. President and representatives of foreign governments and invited guests, I 
hope that when you leave this city and go to your homes, you will carry with you 
nothing but pleasant remembrances of your visit to the foremost city of the State. 
(Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — Possibly you noticed that when I was extending a wel- 
come to the various people here that there was one notable omission. That was not 
entirely carelessness; it was somewhat premeditated, because for the last three days 
it has been my privilege to assist in the celebration in the State of New York, and 
I want to say just a word for the State of New York. I want to say to you, 
citizens of Vermont, that it would not have been possible for the State of Vermont 
to have a celebration like this if we had not received the assistance of the State of 
New York. It is true that the idea of this celebration was conceived in this State, 
as everything else good is. But the assistance of the great Empire State was neces- 
sary in order that we might carry out that idea to the full extent, and I wish now 
to extend to the State of New York and its Commission the heartfelt thanks of 
the citizens of the State of Vermont, and of the Vermont Commission, for all 
they have done for us in the way of helping us in this celebration. I can assure 
you that it is a great thing that they should have done this and we appreciate it. 
Now, there is another thing; there is a gentleman over in the State of New York 
that is pretty well known there and he has been holding me up every day until 
after he had a chance to make his speech, and you can understand just how I felt 
when, after he had finished, they called on me. He said yesterday that he had 
been made the burnt offering and he is going to be made the burnt offering to-day. 
He talked a good deal about Ethan Allen and Seth Warner and Remember Baker, 
and from what he said I thought he wanted to call them New Yorkers, but he did 
not dare go quite as far as that. 

Now, my friends, I want to introduce to you, as the representative of the State 
of New York, a gentleman whom I am sure you will all be pleased to see here 
to-day. He said that after he left New York that he should tread softly. I say 
to you that after he has received your greetings he won't be able to " tread softly," 
he will be so puffed up, and without any further remarks, I wish to present to you, 
ladies and gentlemen, the Governor of New York. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 259 



Governor Hughes at Burlington 

Governor HuGHES — Mr. President, Governor Proul"^, Ambassadors, Dis- 
i'mguished Guests, Fellorv Citizens of the United States: It is Impossible for any of 
you to know with what emotion a New Yorker finds himself upon Vermont soil. 
It is impossible for you to understand how warmly appreciated is the greeting that 
you have given to your dearest foe. (Laughter.) And now lest I be misunder- 
stood, I want to say at the outset, that on behalf of New York, personally and 
officially and in any other way that you may suggest, I admit it all. If there is 
any son of Vermont who can step upon this platform and adequately portray the 
services that you have rendered to the cause of liberty and to the maintenance of our 
unity, if there is any one favored with the benedictions of these hills who can stand 
before you and tell truthfully of your virtues and just renown, then I w^lI say to 
him, to all I agree; and I wish that I had the power of language and the skill of 
rhetoric to tell what is in my heart of love and affection, and what is in my mind 
of respect and just esteem, for the people of the Green Mountains. A little boy 
who was seen walking with a man was asked whether he was related to him. 
" Well," he said, " we are distantly related; he was my mother's first child and I 
was the seventeenth." (Applause and laughter.) New York and Vermont are 
somewhat more closely related, and they are walking together in a fellowship which 
they understand and the value of which they appreciate. It is true that we looked 
with jealous eye upon this beautiful country. We did not covet it, at least con- 
sciously, because we believed it to be our own. We wanted it. We parted with 
it sadly. We looked longingly to the New Hampshire grants, but we realize in 
these days of charming unity of sentiment that " it is better to have loved and lost 
than not to have loved at all." (Laughter and applause.) 

Now, I am a native of the State of New York, born over here, hard by the 
scene of bloody strife — in old Glens Falls. I belong to this highway, and I have 
cherished from my earliest memory, the stories that are connected with this beautiful 
valley. I am a son of New York in every sense, and I rejoice in the resources and 
power of the Empire State, but I also recognize what you have in Vermont in that 
inborn love of liberty, without which our prosperity becomes a mockery. Here 
among the Green Mountains, are those who will never forget what independence 
means. Now, your great Governor is not going to deprive me by unfortunate 
prevision of the right to talk about Ethan Allen here or anywhere else. And if I 
choose to speak of Seth Warner and Remember Baker, I am going to do it. I 
have been doing it more or less for three days, not only because I hold those 
eminent men in high honor, but because I have thought he would appreciate the 



260 State of New York 



reference. What was more distinguished in the career of Ethan Allen than his 
capture of Ticonderoga was the fact that he was a home ruler. He was not a 
Vermonter. He came to Vermont and he espoused the cause of the settlers; and 
while he espoused that cause against New York, he espoused it in defense of a 
fundamental principle which has made you strong and all New England strong, and 
we must hold tenaciously to it in New York if we are to maintain our strength 
(applause), the principle that those who live in a community shall have the right, 
so far as the local concerns of that community go, to determine their own destiny. 
(Applause.) Ethan Allen took up the cause of independence with an assurance 
which reduced the commander of the little garrison at Ticonderoga to instant 
humiliation. He never lost his spirit. While it may offend Vermonters to recall 
the circumstances, he once went down to Albany when a proclamation had been 
made for his arrest and took a drink in the presence of the officials of the State 
(laughter and applause), just to show that he was unafraid and full of daring. 
Well, the bottom thing with him was that he wanted the people of these mountains 
to do what they thought was necessary in the resistance of what he believed to be 
tyranny, just as he had aided the colonies in opposition to what they believed to be 
unjust exaction on the part of the mother country; and he was repeating for Ver- 
mont, on a small scale and of course with varying circumstances, something of the 
drama which had been enacted on the large scale upon the stage of the Revolutionary 
War. 

Now, my friends, as I said to New Yorkers and to some Vermonters last night, 
this celebration is of national significance, and we are to-day more conscious of our 
unity as a people, more intent upon carrying forward with prosperity and justice 
our national interests than upon anything else in the world. Even you proud Ver- 
monters forget Vermont when you think of the United States. (Applause.) And 
were the flag of our common country ever to go in advance of armies of defense, 
those armies would be filled, as of yore, with Green Mountain boys, side by side 
with the sons of the Empire State, knowing no distinction in their patriotism. 
(Applause.) But while we cannot too strongly emphasize our national unity, and 
desire our national growth, and are most solicitous that all powers necessary for 
national prosperity should be exercised by a strong central government, we realize 
that the great success of the administration of our political affairs has been due to 
the fortunate division, which has given us local governments, which we desire to 
have within their proper domain equally strong and equally efficient as that, within 
its domain, of the Federal Government itself. (Applause.) 

And to-day we have not the rivalry of contests over territory. We are glad thai 
you got your Hampshire grants. We are glad that you own this fair land. I 



The Champlain Tercentenary 261 



assure you, as one having knowledge, that proud as we are of New York, we are 
conscious we have got all we can attend to. We could not deal with any more 
than we have, and we have a few, perhaps, to spare, and with the greatest city in 
the United States, we have problems of a sort which fortunately do not vex your 
politics. But, as I say, we realize that in the future our rivalry is to be a rivalry of 
State efficiency. (Applause.) 

One of the finest things that has been done in recent years was the calling 
together of the conference of Governors. It is of great importance that those who, 
by popular election, represent the entire people of their respective States, should 
come together for conference in order that they may learn what has been wisely 
done in other jurisdictions, what experiments have failed, what have succeeded, and 
that by fair comparison they may take advantage of the extraordinary scale of 
experience which is being afforded throughout our various States. And, therefore, 
citizens of Vermont, I am glad that we have an event which we now celebrate in 
common, and one that is back far enough to antedate any difference. We go back 
there on this day of happy celebration, and then we jump all the intervening time, 
and we forget everything that has divided the children of these favored communities. 
We look forward to friendly competition in good government, with intense desire to 
make use of our State facilities in order to promote the real interest and happiness 
of our respective peoples, realizing that by doing so we buttress the foundations of 
the Union and prepare ourselves better to do our duty as citizens of the United 
States of America. (Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — Ladies and Gentlemen: We are exceedingly 
fortunate in some things, and we are exceedingly fortunate in having the 
gentleman with us who will speak to us next, because his arrangements 
were all made to have sailed for France to-day, as I understand it, and 
because of this celebration, because of his desire to be with us, and to 
show us that his country wished to participate in this and that they appre- 
ciate the honor that we are doing to that great Frenchman, Samuel 
Champlain, he consented to remain over. No one could be here that we 
should do more honor to than to him, because France has been our tra- 
ditional friend, friend at all times. TTierefore, it is with great pleasure 
that I welcome Ambassador Jusserand to-day and present him to you. 
(Great applause.) 



262 State of New York 



The Ambassador of France at Burlington 

Ambassador JusSERAND — Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and 
Cenilemen: Before I saw the beautiful lake which stretches beyond your city, I 
had read a description of it, and that description gave an account of the bluest and 
finest sheet of water, and of the bluest sky. It told of the mountains around it, it 
told of the chestnuts, the pines, and all sorts of fine trees; it told even the beauty of 
the fishes in the water. That was a thoroughly complete description, and that 
description I read in the works of Samuel de Champlain. He was a good 
observer, and his account, the first ever penned, gives a very exact idea of the lake 
%vhose waters wash on one side New York and on the other Vermont. I am very 
happy to meet you, and I wish Samuel de Champlain had been able to describe 
not only the trees, the mountains, and the fishes, but, if it had been possible, this 
very assembly. He would have had to describe something handsomer than he ever 
saw in his day. I have just come from the West. I was recently in Portland, 
Oregon, and I saw there a square full of roses; when I walked onto this platform, 
your assembly reminded me of that square. (Applause.) 

As a representative of France, I have several reasons to be happy and proud to 
address you. If France was not the mother of Vermont, France was surely the 
godmother of Vermont; such a name cannot have been given save by French 
people, to the land of green mountains. And there is another thing which makes 
Vermont very dear to France. As you know, France had a feeling for the thirteen 
States, and France wished for their welfare and increase. The first example of the 
increase of the old thirteen was given by Vermont, which formed the fourteenth. 
This was a great thing, and a mighty good example. The example given by Ver- 
mont has been followed; it has been very recently by Oklahoma. You did it first, 
and thirty- four other States imitated your example. This I consider a magnificent 
following of what you did. (Applause.) 

The souvenir of France remains visible in many places on this continent. Your 
name is French, and many others along the great road that leads to Seattle, names 
of rivers, of states, of cities, of Indian tribes, are French names, those very scattered 
so far inland recalling the pluck and energy of the ancestors who first visited those 
parts; such ancestors were better sowers than reapers. They sowed broadcast and 
far and the harvest was not always theirs. But sowing is a praiseworthy deed, and 
those who performed it deserve gratitude. I cannot say, however, that France, 
while she was such a good sower, was not also a reaper, for there is one thing 
France considers she has garnered, and she attaches more importance to it than to 
the possession of many more tangible harvests, and that is American friendship. 
(Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 263 



Ladies and gentlemen, you know, I am sure, if not by personal experience, at 
least by hearsay, what an ambassador is. An ambassador is a man whose duty, 
whose trade, is to smooth away difficulties; and an ambassador, like various other 
sorts of laborers, is never so happy as when he has nothing to do. I am for this 
cause grateful to your State, for it is a fact that in the relations between France 
and Vermont everything is very satisfactory. (Laughter.) I see no difficulties 
looming forth, and if ever, which heaven forbid, there were any, I am sure the 
French Ambassador, whoever he might be, would have no difficulty in smoothing 
away troubles arising between the land of " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," and the 
State of *' Freedom and Unity." (Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — In the past we have had some trouble with our 
mother country, but she is our mother country and we love her for it. 
Therefore, we are extremely pleased to-day that she should have sent so 
distinguished a representative here on this occasion, one who has shown 
himself to be so familiar with our institutions; and it is with great pleasure 
that I present at this time Ambassador Bryce of Great Britain. 

The British Ambassador at Burlington 

Ambassador Bryce — Mr. Governor, Mr. President, Citizens of Vermont, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: You are met to-day to commemorate in Vermont a great 
event, which it is fitting that you should commemorate — the discovery three cen- 
turies ago of that noble lake which forms the western boundary of your State, and 
is one of its greatest charms. When we think of what this region was 300 years 
ago, one can hardly believe that such great changes can have passed in so short a 
time. Short it is, if one compares three centuries with the long ages that it took to 
effect similar changes in the countries of the Old World. In 1 609 this place here 
where we stand was in the midst of a solemn and awe-inspiring wilderness. What 
daring it must have needed to explore those vast and solitary forests — solitary 
because the Indian tribes, always at war with one another, had desolated them by 
continual strife, leaving hardly a man alive through enormous tracts, and how bold a 
spirit must that have been of the men who in their frail canoes, along long stretches 
of rivers and lakes, venturing through dangerous rapids, following difficult trails 
through dark woods with no guide except the Indians, on whom they could not 
always rely, woods filled with wild beasts and with wild tribes more dangerous than 
any beasts, what hearts of steel the men must have had that could have made those 
discoveries, the fruits of which we now enjoy. They came far away from all hope 
of succor. 



264 State of New York 

When Champlaln first guided his canoe over the shining waters of your lake, 
there was no European settlement nearer this spot than the little English colony 
planted two years before on the James river in Virginia, and I venture to say that 
Champlain did not wish that the English were any nearer. (Applause.) This was 
just the year, I 609, when Henry Hudson first steered his bark up the waters of 
that Hudson river, with which you are now connected by navigation. And if 
Hudson had gone north through the woods from Albany and Champlain had moved 
south through the woods from the southern end of the lake, they might have met — 
let us hope they would have met — in friendship, because both were worthy of one 
another, for both had the true spirit that nerves the courage of the explorer. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the men who discovered and explored the continent of 
North and South America, made a wonderful line. If you begin with Christopher 
Columbus and go on to a man who seems to me in some ways quite as great, both 
in his nautical skill and in his courage, as Christopher Columbus himself — the 
Portuguese Magellan — and if you follow that line through Cabot, Vasco Nunez de 
Balboa, the discoverer of the Pacific, and De Soto, who first reached the Missis- 
sippi, and Cortez and Pizarro and the great Frenchmen Cartier and La Salle and 
Champlain, you have a line of daring and gallant men to whom the history of the 
world forms no parallel. And among all those Samuel de Champlain was not only 
one of the ablest but also one of the best. He was equally skillful by sea and by 
land. He knew not only how to discover, but also how to govern his colony of 
Quebec. He was able to describe with wonderful accuracy, the places which he 
visited. The French Ambassador has told you how well he narrated the events of 
his voyage here, and described the features of this lake; and the people of Mount 
Desert Island will tell you that the accounts he gives of their shores are so accurate 
that you may still navigate parts of that coast by the description he gave of the coast 
line and its fringing isles. He was ready to fight when the time came for fighting. 
Fie inspired confidence in his followers, and he was also kind and considerate to his 
followers — more considerate of his followers than was the great La Salle. And 
he thought first of France and of the faith which he came to propagate, and last of 
himself. Samuel de Champlain was what we call and what you call, take him all 
around, a fine fellow. He was a man of whom his country might be proud and of 
whom you may be glad that your lake shall bear his name. (Applause.) I like 
to picture him sailing up the long stretches of that river and coming out upon a 
summer evening upon the glittering waters of your lake, seeing it stretch further to 
the south than the eye could reach, with, on each side, these deep waters and above 
them the long lines of blue mountains, which now enshrine, like a choice picture, 
the beauties of this inland sea. The name of your lake in Indian is " Caniaderi- 



The Champlain Tercentenary 265 



guarunte." Now " Caniaderi-guarunte " means, in the Indian language, " the 
gate of the country," the opening by which men can pass north and south through 
this country in every other part of which the basin of the St. Lawrence is divided 
from the basin of the Hudson and the Connecticut by lofty mountains and what 
were then impassable forests. It is a noble natural highway for commerce, and 
what hope for dominion and for trade must have thrilled the heart of Champlain 
when he saw this splendid highway stretching south right across between the lines of 
the mountains. It was an age when the growth of the great Spanish Empire in the 
southern parts of North America and over the most of South America had fired the 
imagination of other nations to emulate what Spain had done, and Holland and 
France and England all sought to create for themselves dominions similar to that 
which Spain had acquired so easily. 

So the example of Champlain, who came to found an empire here for the King 
of France, fired many an excellent French pioneer after him, until Du Luth reached 
the furthest corner of Lake Superior at the spot where a great city now bears his 
name, and until La Salle, passing up Lake Michigan, and by the spot where now 
Chicago stands, crossed over to the Illinois river, and then descended down to its 
mouth, the mighty stream of the Mississippi. 

Of all that has happened, ladies and gentlemen, since those days of Samuel 
Champlain, I have no time to speak. I cannot tell you of the long process by which 
Vermont was built up, and filled with the stalwart race of the Green Mountain 
boys. I don't know, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, why we should always have 
to refer to the Green Mountain boys and not speak also of the Green Mountain 
girls. (Applause.) Those men of the Green Mountains were indeed a sturdy and 
stalwart race. They were the early predecessors of the Western backwoodsmen 
of later days, they were the men who had the hardy virtues, which in your later 
days, you associate with the Far West. But in one respect they are perhaps better 
than the men of the Far West, for they were not so free and easy in their use of 
shooting irons. Perhaps, however, that is so only because in those days the revolver 
had not yet been invented. Nor can I stop to describe the long strife that ranged 
along the shores of your lake. We have been hearing about that for the last three 
days in New York State. Nor will I attempt to discuss the rival claims that were 
put forward to the territory in the presence of two such potentates as the Governors 
of New York and Vermont. I will only say that those contests gave an occasion 
for the display of that admirable quality in which the citizens of the United States, 
and particularly of the northern part of the United States, stand pre-eminent, a very 
high sense of justice and individual right, and a determination to assert individual 
right by every legal method. These long differences have now been happily 



266 State of New York 



adjusted, and I will leap across the intervening centuries to give you one thought 
that occurs to me when I consider what has become of northern New York and 
Vermont, now three centuries from the time when those territories were first dis- 
covered. 

How strangely does the present differ from what anybody in the past could have 
foretold. How wonderfully are all the purposes of man turned aside. How little 
can anyone foresee what the future has in store; how litde can the discoverer him- 
self tell what will become of the land which he discovered. Champlain thought 
that he came here to establish the dominion of the Royal House of France, to open 
up a great trade in furs, and to make this a great highway of commerce. The 
monarchy of France is gone, the furs are gone, the Indians whom he sought to con- 
vert are gone; and except for a short time when the trade in furs was active along 
Lake Champlain, it has never yet been a great highway of commerce. It promised 
to become one when the second steamboat, immediately after the first steamboat of 
Fulton was launched upon the Hudson, when a steamboat was launched to ply here. 
But soon after there came the railroad, and by the time that the lands to the north 
and south were so filled that there were plenty of passengers and freight to carry to 
and fro, the swifter transportation by the railroad superseded water carriage, and it 
is now the railroads and not the steamers that carry the passengers on your lakes. 
If the hopes entertained by your mayor are realized and this projected deep water 
line of navigation is opened up, it may be that the dream of Champlain may at last 
be realized and that your lake will again be that highway of commerce he desired. 
But now it has become at last a dwelling of peace and quiet. No more warships 
are seen upon your waters, no more forts stand armed upon your shores, no shouts 
from war canoes awaken the echoes of your cliffs. We have been celebrating for 
the last two days on the other side of the lake, and you are now celebrating here a 
veritable festival of peace, in which the representative of France is here to mingle 
his thoughts of peace with ours, and in which the soldiers of Canada have come to 
parade beside your soldiers. (Applause.) I wonder, ladies and gentlemen, what 
the future has in store for a lake whose history is now so strangely unlike what was 
predicted for it. When one speaks of the failure of prophecy in the past, one ought 
to be shy of making any prophecies for the future; but a man may perhaps venture 
to prophesy when he knows that the truth or falsity of his prediction cannot be 
known until long after he and those who hear him have all disappeared from this 
scene. So I will venture to make one prophecy. It does not seem likely that your 
shores on this side, or on the other side of the lake will ever be the scene of any 
very startling or sudden development of material wealth. You have indeed some 
fertile lands in southern Vermont, but you have not the coal here that other parts 



The Champlain Tercentenary 267 



of the country have, and your soil is not as fertile as are the prairies of the Missis- 
sippi Valley. You may, indeed, possess mineral wealth that is not yet revealed. 
Science makes so many discoveries that we can never tell what stores of new 
minerals — perhaps of radium, far more costly than gold — may lie hidden in your 
hills. We cannot tell what new minerals will be added to the marble quarries 
which are one of the sources of wealth of your State. But as I see the future at 
present, it seems to me that the great assets of your country in Vermont are two. 
One is the race of men and women that inhabit it. (Applause.) 

You men of northern Vermont and northern New Hampshire, living among its 
rocks and mountains in a region which may be called the Switzerland of America — 
you are the people here who have had hearts full of the love of freedom which 
exists in mountain peoples, and who have the indomitable spirit and the unconquer- 
able will which we always associate with the lake and mountain lands of the Alps 
and Scotland. You have shown it in the great men that you have given to the 
United States, and in the hardy pioneers and settlers which you have sent forth 
from northern New England to settle in northern New York, and all across the 
continent as far as the ranges of the Rocky Mountains. And then your country is 
unequalled in the beauty and variety of the scenery with which Providence has 
^blessed you. (Applause.) No other part of eastern America can compare for the 
varied charms of a wild and romantic nature with the States that lie around Lake 
Champlain and the White Mountains. And as wealth increases in other parts of 
the country, as the gigantic cities of the eastern States grow still vaster, as popula- 
tion thickens in the agricultural and manufacturing parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, 
and Indiana and Illinois, one may foresee a time when the love of nature and the 
love of recreation and health will draw more and more of the population of those 
over-crowded cities and States to seek the delights of nature in these spots where 
nature shows at her loveliest. I would need the imagination of a poet or the pen of 
a real estate agent to figure out what the value of property will become on the shores 
here half a century hence; but this I can say, that I do believe that all eastern 
] America will come more and more to value this region of mountains and lakes, as 
the place in which relief will have to be sought from the constantly growing strain 
and stress of our modern life. And anyone who values nature and loves nature, and 
who foresees such a future as that for this part of America, cannot refrain from 
taking this opportunity of begging you to do all you can to safeguard and preserve 
those beauties and charms of nature with which you have been endowed in such 
liberal measure. (Applause.) Do not suffer any of those charms to be lost by 
any want of foresight on your part now. Save your woods, not only because they 
are one of your great natural resources that ought to be conserved, but also because 



268 State of New York 



they are a source of beauty which can never be recovered if they are lost. Do not 
permit any unsightly buildings to deform a beautiful bit of scenery which is a joy 
to those who visit you. Presei-ve the purity of your streams and your lakes, not 
merely for the sake of the angler, although I have a great deal of sympathy with him, 
but also for the sake of those who live on the banks, and those who come to seek the 
joy of an unspoiled nature by the river-sides. Keep open the summits of your 
mountains. Let no man debar you from free access to the top of your mountains 
and from the pleasure of wandering along their sides, and the joys their prospects 
afford. I am sorry to say that in my own country there are persons who in the 
interest of what we call their sporting right are endeavoring to prevent the pedestrians 
and the artists and the geologists and the botanists, and any one who loves nature 
and seeks nature for her own sake, from enjoying the mountains and the views they 
afford. Do not, in this country, suffer any such mistake to be made; but see that 
you keep open for the enjoyment of all the people, for the humblest of the people, 
as well as for those who can enjoy villas and yachts of their own, the beauties with 
which Providence has blessed you. 

These, ladies and gentlemen, are some of the means by which this noble shore, 
the most beautiful of all throughout eastern America, can be preserved for the 
enjoyment of your whole United States with some of that romantic charm, and that 
wild simplicity which it possessed when the canoe of the discoverer first clove its 
silent waters, and when gazing southward he marked the long ranges, the Adiron- 
dacks to the west and the Green Mountains to the east, from whose peaks two 
sister States now look at this shining expanse and unite, as we do to-day, in celebrat- 
ing the fame and the name of one who belonged then to France, but who now 
belongs to the world, Samuel de Champlain. (Applause.) 

Governor ProutY — Ladies and Gentlemen: To the north of us we 
have a neighbor of which I have spoken before. We love her as a 
brother. We are glad to welcome her representative here to-day. We 
are glad that she has sent such a distinguished man, and without further 
words I present to you the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux, Pastmaster-General 
of Canada, who will address you in behalf of Canada. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 269 



Speech Delivered by the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux 

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Cenllemen: Twelve months ago, 
the eyes of the world were riveted on Quebec, on the occasion of its tercentenary. 
The heir to the throne was there to represent our great and good King, His Majesty 
Edward the Seventh. France and the United States, the two sister republics, were 
also welcome guests at that unique gathering. 

Unfurled at the masts of a mighty fleet, floated the Union Jack, the Tricolor, 
and the Stars and Stripes. The flags of three great nations were thus unfurled and 
entwined in honor of Samuel de Champlain. founder of Quebec and father of 
New France. 

The event is one never to be forgotten. Fortunate were those who witnessed the 
memorable pageantry. They brought back with them a sense of rapture which the 
vision of Quebec, alone of all American cities, can produce. 

The Plains of Abraham where the two heroes fell, the old walls and the world- 
famed Citadel, remind one of the mighty struggles of the past; while over yonder, 
what a panorama unrolled itself before the eyes! Here the city with its glacis and 
terrace, its battlements and quaint gables; there, the fort-crowned heights of Levis, 
the graceful meandering of the River St. Charles, bathing the Laurentian mountains, 
the Emerald hAe of Orleans, and. as far as the eye can reach, snow-white villages 
dotting the banks of the St. Lawrence, their spires resounding with the soft tinkle of 
chapel and convent bells. 

Twelve months have elapsed, and to-day as by enchantment, we are assembled 
here to take part in other festivities in honor of the same hero. The scene has 
changed — but the three great nations vie with each other in again offering their 
homage to Samuel de Champlain. 

We are privileged in having with us the President of the United States. France 
and England are also officially represented by their Ambassadors. The scene has 
changed, but the actors are the same. 

Indeed, the name of Champlain belongs not only to one race, but to humanity. 
His fame as a navigator and as a discoverer extends far beyond Quebec, far beyond 
this lake. It extends all over America. 

With the hope of finding the highway to the riches of India, the fervor of his 
ardent spirit led him in his first voyage to project a canal across the Panama. 

And later on. still dreaming that a pathway might yet be found which would 
lead him to this golden land, he penetrated through the St. Lawrence as far as the 
great inland seas. He, before all others, surveyed the Ottawa river and its tribu- 
taries. He was a pioneer. 



270 State of New York 



The Panama canal is now well under way, and thanks to the vigorous and 
enlightened policy of President Taft, the world will soon realize what the opening 
of the Isthmus means for the interchange of commerce between the east and the west. 

Some day, not too far distant, the Canadian government will build the Georgian 
Bay canal. Its course will follow practically the same route as that surveyed by 
Champlain three centuries ago. The dream of a pathway to Cathay has long ago 
been fulfilled. From Montreal, four days* travel carries one to the Pacific, and 
the wealth of the Orient is within his grasp. With the transcontinental railways 
and the Empress lines of steamers, the mysteries of the far east have now faded away. 

But, sir, what is the true significance of this celebration, and why this gathering? 

If Quebec, if the Plains of Abraham, the scene of the last conflict between the 
two great rival powers, stand in bold relief in the annals of America, this Lake 
Champlain valley can also well be pointed to as one of the hallowed grounds of this 
continent. 

Long before its discovery by Champlain, the blue waters of the lake shaded by 
the primeval forests were traversed by the warring Indian tribes in their crafts of 
fragile bark The red men knew the importance of this site in their errands. They 
had called it the " Gate of the Country." 

And when Champlain, induced by his allies to visit these shores in July, 1 609, 
gazed upon this sheet of water, he soon foresaw what its undisputed possession meant 
from a strategical point of view. Here was the highway between Quebec and 
Albany, between the north and the south, between New France and New England, 
a highway through which, during 250 years surged the tides of war and travel. In 
time of peace, the picturesque flotillas of canoes brought here from the deepest 
recesses the fur trader, the trappers, the coureurs de hois and the black-robed mis- 
sionary. 

In time of war, from the north and from the south, marched with unfaltering 
steps the elite of French and English armies — and later, of the American army — 
in order to gain control of this all-important thoroughfare. 

From whatever point the eye wanders on this lake, it rests upon some historical 
fortifications which, though silent, bear witness that the destinies of France, of 
England, of the United States and of Canada were largely decided here. Fort Ste. 
Anne at Isle La Motte, Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point, Fort Carillon at Ticon- 
deroga, are landmarks familiar to every schoolboy on both sides of the boundary. 
And what great men — pioneers, generals, soldiers, whose fame re-echoes from shore 
to shore! 

On that roll of honor Canada stands prominently. In the words of Parkman: 
" When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on 



The Champlain Tercentenary 271 



the borders of that new world was pecuHar, and is httle recognized. While the 
Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, and while England with 
soberer steps and less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold- 
hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the 
ends of peaceful commercial industry." 

A Canadian, of French descent, it is with pardonable pride that I may recall the 
fact that the pioneers of civilization on the American continent were men of my race. 

They were the first to leave the ridges of the eastern hills and to open the march 
through those reaches of the continent where lay the untrodden paths of the far west. 
There, upon the courses of the distant rivers that gleamed before them in the sun, 
down the farther slopes of the hills beyond, out upon the broad fields that lay upon 
the fertile banks of the Mississippi, upon the long stretch of the continent to the 
Rockies — those were the regions in which, joining with people in every race and 
clime under the sun, they helped to make the great compounded nation whose liberty 
and mighty works of peace were to cause all the world to stand and gaze in wonder- 
ment. 

Frenchmen of the seventeenth century, who, following the footsteps of Cham- 
plain, settled in New France, were of a roaming and adventurous disposition. Being, 
many of them, scions of noble families, sons of warriors, trade — and still less the 
tilling of the soil — did not appeal to their tastes; they preferred forest life, with 
the entrancing emotions of the hunter; it was almost war again. 

The Puritans of the New England colonies were more practical and satisfied with 
living on the land close by the sea. One hundred years after the settlement of 
Virginia, the colonists from that State had not yet crossed the Alleghanies, whilst 
explorers from New France had overrun all the vast regions along the Mississippi to 
New Orleans, whose founder, Iberville, came from Quebec. These daring ancestors 
of ours had tramped, before the Seven Years' War, the country covered to-day by 
Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa. They had staked the sites of many great cities 
of to-day. 

Louis Joliet and Father Marquette, to whose memory statues have been erected, 
discovered the Mississippi in 1673, though it is pretended that de Soto had visited 
that river almost a century before, but for a long time all knowledge of that great 
water course had been lost. 

Cavelier de la Salle, explored the course of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico 
three years after Marquette, and gave the country adjoining it the name of Louisiana, 
which designated for a long time a much larger tract of country than it does now. 

Then Father Hennepin, who had accompanied La Salle, also explored the 
west and discovered the Falls of St. Anthony, where the Indians captured him. 



272 State of New York 



Du Luth, after whom the promising city of Duluth was named, was the first 
European who visited the State of Minnesota, estabHshing a settlement on the shores 
of Lake Huron (St. Joseph). 1680. 

Detroit was founded by Lamothe-Cadillac ; the city of Dubuque by Julien 
Dubuque, a Canadian; Chouteau built the first house in St. Louis, and Salomon 
Juneau was the father of the ambitious city of Milwaukee, whilst Vital Guerin 
chose the site of the ever-growing city of St. Paul. 

Beaubien camped on the site of Chicago and afterwards established a trading 
post on that spot. 

Vincennes owes its name and origin to the Chevalier de Vincennes. 

Glancing over the archives of Wisconsin and Minnesota, there is no exaggeration 
in saying that the colonization and settlement of the West was due to Canadians. 

In fact, the descendants of the " coureurs de bois " so vividly described by 
Parkman, were wont to overrun the West. 

After the War of Independence, they made the territories which now comprise 
the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, etc., their home, and many of them were 
the connecting link between the Indians and the United States, acting as interpreters 
when treaties were concluded between the aborigines and the American government. 

Leclerc, Perrault, Bisaillon, to name but a few, were well known by American 
statesmen of the time, and advantage was taken of their intercourse and good rela- 
tionship with the Indians to bring about treaties with the United States. 

It is also a fact that these Canadians were much more in sympathy with the 
Indians than the American colonists, living their lives, associating with them in their 
every day pursuits. Thus, they contributed largely to the extension of civilization 
westward. 

" Westward the Star of Empire takes its way," says the American poet. 
Might I not add: " Guided by Canadian explorers".? 

I referred a moment ago to the Puritans. The stern Puritan character of the 
Puritan Fathers, who founded New England, was perhaps less romantic and pictur- 
esque than that of the French cavaliers who planted the cross on the heights of 
Quebec and roamed all over the continent, but they also represented ideals which 
contributed in the making of the North American continent. 

To them, to their courage and their patient labors, is due the enormous expansion 
of the Republic. 

To their spirit of individual initiative and endurance must we assign the evolution 
which has taken place in the political institutions of the continent. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 273 



Sons of Great Britain, they could not but live up to those ideals which, born 
in the forests of northern Europe and nursed on the sea, were destined to rise to 
full stature in the boundless regions and wilds of America. 

They, above all others, can claim to have accomplished the great task of building 
this great American nation and of inspiring its polity. 

Englishmen bred in law and ordered government, they left an ancient realm, a 
land of art and letters, to build states in a wilderness. They brought with them the 
steadied habits and sobered thoughts of a highly civilized nation into the wild air 
of an untouched continent. 

All honor to the Puritan Fathers! 

But whilst we must show appreciation of the explorers and pioneers of this con- 
tinent and of the warriors who fought and died here for their country, whilst to 
forget such true and brave men or even to yield them indifferent praise, would be 
but shame, yet, sir, is not this the fittest occasion to proclaim our determination 
that now on and forever the American commonwealth and the Dominion of Canada 
shall always promote and advance the cause of peace, harmony and civilization on 
this vast continent. 

There are heroes of peace as there are heroes of war. In our modern times, 
death sacrifice is not demanded as in days gone by. With less glamour, perhaps, but 
with no less glory, can the statesman, by standing faithfully to their unthanked tasks 
of public service, make their country a better land. 

Assembled here, on the historic shores of Lake Champlain, the representatives 
of three great nations can well afford to proclaim before the whole world that the 
arts of peace are above all most civilizing. 

The entente cordiale between France and England has given Europe the assur- 
ance of a long period of rest. The ties of friendship which bind Great Britain to 
the American Republic have removed from the New World all causes of friction. 

What better evidence could be given of the existence of that friendly spirit than 
that for nearly a century the policing of the Great Lakes has been reduced to a mini- 
mum of armed cruisers. 

What better evidence of a sincere mutual affection between the two nations 
than that within a very short period of time five treaties affecting Canada and the 
United States have been negotiated, signed and ratified; a sixth awaits ratification, 
and a seventh is almost completed. 

This is indeed an inspiring example to the whole world — two nations separated 
only by a boundary line — which for three thousand miles have no other protection 
19 



274 State of New York 



against hostilities than the fixed and settled determination of both people to pursue 
in peace the different paths which they have been treading for more than one hundred 
years. 

Under different flags we are pressing toward a single goal: freedom, righleousness 
and dut\) — thus uniting in the loftiest of hopes, aspirations and ideals. (Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — My friends, what do you think about now? 
(Laughter and applause.) There is one thing more, and that is this, we 
may forget the story which is told, we never forget the song, and as we 
wish to commemorate this event, so that it shall always be remembered 
we have secured a sweet singer who we believe will be able to sing such 
a song as shall be remembered. I present to you Mr. Bhss Carman, who 
has written a poem appropriate for this occasion and will now deliver it. 

Mr. Bliss Carman read the following poem : 

THE CHAMPLAIN COUNTRY 

An Ode by Bliss Carman. 

When the sweet Summer days 

Come to New England, and the south wind plays 

Over the forests, and the tall tulip trees 

Lift up their chalices 

Of delicate orange green 

Against the Blue serene; 

When the chestnut crowns are full of flowers. 

And the long hours 

Are not too long 

For the oriole's song; 

When the wild roses blow 

In blueberry pastures, and the Bobwhite's note 

Calls us away 

On the happy trail where every heart must go; 

When the white clouds float 

Through an ampler day. 

And the old sea lies mystical blue once more 

Along the Pilgrim shore. 



I 



The Champlain Tercentenary 275 



Crooning to stone-fenced pastures sweet with fern 

Tales of the long ago and the far away; 

And when to the hemlock solitudes return 

The gold-voiced thrushes, and the high beech woods 

Ring with enchantment as the twilight falls 

Among the darkening hills; 

And the new moonlight fills 

The world with beauty and the soul with peace 

And infinite release; 

Is there any land that history recalls 

Bestowed by gods on mortals anywhere 

More goodly than New England or more fair? 

On such a day three hundred years ago 

By toilsome trails and slow 

But with the adventurer's spirit all aflame, 

The great discoverer came. 

Finding another Indies than he guessed 

To reward his darling quest. 

And fill the wonder-volume of Romance — 

The sailor of little Brouage, the founder of New France. 

Sturdy, sagacious, plain 

Samuel de Champlain. 

On many a river and stream 

The paddles of his Abenakis dip and gleam; 

Their slim canoe poles set and flash in the sun. 

Where strong white waters run; 

By many a portage, many a wooded shore. 

They press on to explore 

The unknown that leads them ever to the west; 

And when at dusk their camp is made 

Within the dense still shade. 

The white shafts of the moonlight creep 

About them while they sleep 

On the earth's fragrant and untroubled breast. 

They on a day upon some granite rise 

They stand in mute surprise. 



276 State of New York 



And wonder, as they gaze 

On the green wilderness in Summer haze. 

At a new paradise 

Unrolled before their eyes. 

What did he seek. 

This hardy voyager with the steady hand. 

And the sunburnt cheek? 

Passage to India and the fabled land 

So longed for and foretold. 

Where rivers ran with gold — 

Man's fond far hope of unlaborious ease, 

Miraculous wealth and benefits unearned, 

For which he vainly yearned. 

He found here no such place. 

But in this new world again was face to face 

With life's familiar laws and orders old. 

Still to be followed, if we would fill the mould 

Of our ideal — a manhood that is free 

With the soul's large and happy liberty. 

As if God said to man, 
" Try once again my plan- 
Here is a continent all new. 
Take it and see once more what thou canst do. 
The happiness which thy stormy heart desires 
My will foresees, requires. 
On the long road that lies 
Across the centuries 
To my perfection dimly understood. 
Seek thou the almighty good. 
The everlasting beautiful and true." 

Men of New England, sons of pioneers. 

And in your birthright peers 

Of the world's masters, this is holy soil. 

The divine ancestral dust from which we come, 

Bringing our dreams of justice, the high thought 

Of a pure freedom for which our mothers wrought 



The Champlain Tercentenary 277 



In dreamful pride. 

And our fathers lived and died. 

With unselfish toil. 

Even as they w^illed. 

We too must toil to build 

The ideal state. 

Which shall be strong without brutality. 

And by its fine humanity be great. 

This is no fairyland. 

No Eldorado planned 

For our salvation. The law runs forth and back. 

Immutable as the sun on his sidereal track. 

Beneficent and profound: 

Only with labor comes ease. 

Only with wisdom comes joy 

And greatness comes not without love. 

This is God's garden ground. 

And we are the tillers thereof. 

And the crop shall be women and men. 

As ever of old — 

Not a pale city breed. 

Bred between hunger and greed. 

But a new cosmic race. 

With the poise of the world in its mien. 

The ineffable soul in its face. 

Remembering the best that has been. 

And its password, " The best that can be! " 

No Mesopotamian valley, nor Eden age. 

Is the place, is the time. 

For the birth of the sublime. 

The lovely and the same. 

But the time is now, and the place is here. 

For the life divine. 

In July of the year 

Ninteen hundred and nine. 

In the Country of Champlain. (Applause.) 



278 State of New York 

Governor Prouty — Ladies and Gentlemen: We are celebrating 
historic events. The valley of the Champlain has been the scene of many 
wars, of much strife, but we must remember, as was so beautifully said 
here the other day, that the nations which contended in this valley are 
neither of them here at the present time, but a new nation has arisen, and 
to-day that nation is represented here by its first citizen. I present to 
you the President of the United States. (Applause.) 

President Taft at Burlington 

President Taft — Governor Prouiy, Messrs. Ambassadors, Governor Hughes, 
and Other Distinguished Guests, and Citizens of Vermont: It is true as Governor 
Prouty said that I had a summons to Washington yesterday and that I disobeyed 
that summons, because I did not wish to miss the honor of being present on this 
occasion to testify to the pride I have in shov^ing three generations of my ancestors 
as Vermont men. (Applause.) I am proud of it because it means that they live 
among a people of rugged honesty, with the spirit of true liberty, with faith in God, 
and with ability to help themselves. (Applause.) 

I had a colleague on the bench when I was a judge who came from Vermont, 
and I asked him why he came from there. " Well," he said, " there were giant 
tracks in that State, but," he said, " I can only explain to you why I left by the 
fact that I was examined for the bar by a committee of three, one of whom was the 
clerk of the court and two others were then leaders of the bar. One was 92, the 
other 94, and the third was 96, and I concluded that if I sought a place of 
prominence at a bar I had better move out of the State." (Laughter.) Now, 
whether it is that you all live to be a hundred here, or whether it is that the severi- 
ties of your winters and the obstacles that you have to encounter in living are such 
that the weak are cut off in their youth and only the survivors live, I don't know 
(laughter), but certain it is that a man who can claim Vermont lineage has some- 
thing to be proud of. (Applause.) My father knew every man in the State of 
Ohio that had come from Vermont. And there is something about Vermont men, 
whether you meet them in California or Ohio, or any other State — and they are in 
every State — that makes between them a bond almost equal to a bond of Free- 
masonry. (Applause.) 

Now, my friends, I am not in the theatrical business, and I have not fully under- 
stood until the last three days what was meant by a continuous show. (Laughter.) 
Now I know. (Laughter.) And it affects differently those who are engaged in it 
and those who come in. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 279 



I have had the pleasure of attempting to compose the differences arising between 
the Governor of New York and the Governor of Vermont, and it has been at times 
a difficult task. I do not mean to make that harmonious union that they speak of 
now, and that I hope will continue to be preserved, any more difficult by suggesting 
a solution of the problem about to arise in respect to the place where the monument 
lo Samuel Champlain is to be put. (Laughter.) I suggested last night that it 
might be well to submit it to a committee consisting of the French Ambassador, the 
English Ambassador, and the Chief Executive of the United States, and that we 
might then reach a conclusion that would satisfy nobody. I don't know how you 
are going to satisfy everybody unless you make Champlain a Colossus of Rhodes 
and put one foot in New York and one foot in Vermont (laughter) and then when 
you do you will interfere with that ambitious plan of your mayor with reference 
to a deep waterway. (Laughter.) I feel about the solution of that question very 
much as the gentleman did who came across a creek which he was told was called 
the Saskascheiqualie Creek, and he asked his informant how they spelled that 
name. He said: " Some spells it one way and some spells it another, but in my 
judgment there are no correct way of spelling it." (Laughter.) 

My friends, this is a most unique and many-sided memorial. I know there has 
run through your minds as there has through mine this morning the happy feeling 
of being present to hear such beautiful speeches from the heart, as we have heard 
from the eloquent representatives, from all who have been invited to take part in this 
celebration. (Applause.) We meet to celebrate an event and a man upon whose 
life and upon the acts of whose life turned, in a way which he little expected, the 
whole settlement of this country. We meet here to celebrate his virtues and to con- 
gratulate France, his country, as one that could produce such a hero (applause), 
but the feature of this memorial that I think so unique in all memorials that I know 
of is the gathering here in amity, in peace and in a union that cannot be torn apart, 
of three great powers, England, France and the United States (applause), and 
with England her fairest daughter, the Dominion of Canada. (Applause). I 
ask you, where in all the history of memorials can you find one that in that respect 
will match this ? (Applause. ) Only yesterday — and it will be the same to-day — 
two regiments of Canadian soldiers, the Governor's Foot Guards and the Royal 
Highlanders, march shoulder to shoulder with the militia of Vermont and the regu- 
lars of the United States. They will all understand the same orders in the same 
way and you won't feel, except by the difference in color, that you are looking on 
any different or varied race. (Applause.) And now, my friends, I am not going 
lo keep you any longer. If there is any one thing that my experience in a continuous 
show has taught me it is that each man ought to limit his particular stunt. I thank 
you. (Applause.) 



280 State of New York 

When the speaking was over the President and other principal guests 
reviewed the parade of the day. It included the Canadian Governor- 
General's Foot Guards, the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
the Vermont regiment of the National Guard, the Indians who were pre- 
senting the historical pageants, and many civic guests. At its close the 
Presidential party was taken to the Ethan Allen Club for luncheon. 
On the way thither the President met a detachment of Civil War 
veterans. There was a halt and an exchange of hearty greetings, which, 
to many an old soldier, was perhaps the pleasantest incident of the day. 

Later in the afternoon the President witnessed for the first time the 
Indian pageant of Hiawatha, from a grandstand on the lake shore, seat- 
ing some five thousand spectators. It was packed to the utmost. At 
the close of this exhibition, President Taft and other guests were given 
a drive through Burlington's attractive streets and parks, and at 6 o'clock 
they were taken to the Gymnasium of the University of Vermont where 
a commemoration dinner was served to some five hundred diners. 

On the President's entrance the whole assemblage which packed the 
long hall rose to its feet with a single impulse and for some five minutes 
made the rafters tremble with a storm of applause. 

The President was seated between Governor Prouty and Mrs. Prouty, 
the former acting as toastmaster for the occasion. The Gymnasium was 
most strikingly decorated. From the center of the high ceiling a cluster of 
American, English and French flags was artistically arranged and from 
them radiated long streamers of red, white and blue bunting. Great blue 
banners bearing the fleurs-de-lis of France hung from either side and 
spaced about the walls were smaller flags of the three nations repre- 
sented. 

The guests were seated at six very long tables; and at the end of the 
hall, raised on a platform and banked with evergreen, was the speakers' 
table. At the close of the dinner Governor Prouty presented the first 
speaker and the chief guest of the occasion in the following words : 



The Champlain Tercentenary 281 



THE BANQUET AT BURLINGTON. 

Governor Prouty — For the last three days it seems to me that I 
have done nothing but talk and to-night all I can say to you is that I am 
pumped dry. I have not any ideas and I ought not to be presiding. But 
the powders that be have said that it was my duty to do so, and therefore 
I am here. If I have not said it before, and if the gentleman who told me 
the story were not here, I don't know but that I should try to get off that 
same old joke, and that is that my speech is like the tail of a yellow dog, 
it is bound to occur, but that I will try and not have it like the tail of a 
cat, that is, fur to the end. 

For the last few days we have been revelling in history. We have 
talked history from morning till night. We have not only talked of his- 
tory, but we have talked of the future. It seems to me that it is about 
time to talk of the present, because, while we may look back on the past, 
and we may surmise as to the future, the present is here; it is the vital 
thing that we have with us all the time, and we should, to the best of our 
ability, think of the present. We should think of the things that are going 
on at this time in our country. We should try and do what we can to 
assist in making those things the best possible. I know of no one who can 
do more for us along this line than the speaker whom I am going to intro- 
duce to you in just a moment, because no one is in a better position to 
know of the present, no one is in a better position to know of the aims and 
the objects of our government than he. We, in our State, have aims and 
objects at the present time, and in our Republic we have aims and objects, 
and because I believe that we should know something about them at this 
lime I am going to introduce to you our most distinguished, our most 
beloved President of the United States. (Applause.) 



282 State of New York 



The Burlington Banquet: President Taft Speaks 

President Taft — Governor Prouiy, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Governor 
has referred to the fact that we have been talking for three days, and each time w^e 
have had to talk, the question has been, who should be offered up, or who should 
be given to the audience as the burnt offering, that is, who should be selected as 
the first speaker, and deprived of the opportunity to get ideas from those who follow 
him. Governor Hughes has figured in that capacity several times in New York, 
acting as a proper host. To-night I am offered. (Laughter.) Perhaps because 
the train leaves early, perhaps because it is my turn. I don't suppose that 
audiences realize in post-prandial discussions, as you call it formally in your pro- 
gramme, how much you lose by reason of the presence of the press, and the reporting 
of what is said. No speaker likes to go into the light and frivolous if he is going 
to face it in amber and in cold print the next morning, and yet a great many things 
might be said under the influence and inspiration of such a presence as this that 
would pass for coin that the next morning seem spurious, and I may say have the 
air and taste of a chestnut. 

Now, one of the stories and experiences that comes to me to-night at the end of 
these three days is that of George Fred Williams of Massachusetts, who attended 
a meeting in celebration of the completion of the bridge at St. Louis. They gave 
him the hospitality that that region is famous for, for a day or two, continued 
from hour to hour, and finally he was called upon at three o'clock in the morning 
at the closing banquet to say what he had to say to the people of Memphis, and 
what he said was " People of Memphis, we of Massachusetts thank you for your 
ferocious hospitality." (Laughter.) I only want to say that if there be any 
similarity between our two experiences, it is fitting that this one should end, as it 
certainly does end, in spite of the decorations, in a gymnasium. (Laughter.) 

I would not object to make two and three speeches a day, even with the presence 
of every member of the distinguished company of the travelling show of which I 
am a part (laughter), if it were not that at least two and sometimes three of those 
speeches have to be made to the same audience, and therefore, the jokes and the 
repartee and the light persiflage and the badinage cannot be repeated, and when 
the distance is only across the lake, you are very much afraid that some of the 
audience may have been in New York as well to hear those acute remarks that 
you so pride yourself on in your first speech. (Laughter.) And that is one 
difficulty about a late speech. When you get into your first speech you always 
forget that you ought to keep something in reserve, and you let go of both barrels, 
and there is nothing left. (Laughter.) And so this morning I referred to the fact 
that I have great pride in my Vermont ancestry, and I intend to repeat that to-night. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 283 



I have often seriously studied the question why it was that there seemed to be a 
distinctive character and a pecuhar individuahty in Vermont men. I suppose it is 
due to the fact that the problems that the Vermont men had to solve when they 
came here from Massachusetts and otherwheres were so difficult that they neces- 
sarily developed all the traits of character which we call virtue. (Applause.) 
They certainly did not find any opportunity for luxury here that would destroy 
their energy and enterprise. They made, therefore, a safe and conservative people. 
If I were to describe the Vermonter in one word. I would say he was a safe man. 
safe for himself, safe for his family, safe for his State and safe for the nation.' 
(Applause.) His experience was not unlike, and his standing in our community 
is not unlike that of the canny Scotch in Great Britain. Nobody ever got ahead 
of a Scotchman in a trade, and I have yet to hear of the Vermonter that has been 
left in that regard. (Laughter.) You came here and found a large agricultural 
crop of rocks, and you went to quarrying and you developed the greatest marble 
quarries in the world, and then when marble ceased to be stylish, you developed 
the greatest granite quarry. And then it is very well when you are engaged in 
selhng and buying goods, to have a little control of the things that determine how 
much, and so you organized the greatest scale factory that there is in the world. 

We heard a great deal about your deserted farms at one time. Whether that 
was put forth for the purpose of inviting innocent outsiders to come in. or whether 
It really represented an actual condition, certainly it has passed. I do not think 
there are any deserted farms in Vermont to-day. The housewife has ceased to be 
uncomfortable; the milk is sold or sent to a creamery in such a way that she is now 
enjoying a luxury that farmers' wives in the past generation never did. and the 
statistics show that you are putting aside a pretty penny every year on account of 
your dairy products. In other words, you have wrestled with the problem and you 
have made a great success. You are not all millionaires, but you are all in that 
condition of respectable wealth, or respectable poverty that are the two best con- 
ditions to make a good people. (Applause.) You preserve your traditions just 
as the English did. and accomplish reforms though you do preserve your traditions. 
You elect your judges by the legislature. I should think in a way that might be 
improved; and you elect them every one year or two years. I forget which, but 
whatever it is. the tenure of office is practically for life, because you believe that 
when you have got a good thing you ought to keep it. So. too. with respect to 
your Congressmen and your Senators. You have learned that the way to exercise 
an mfluence in Washington far beyond anything that your population entitles you 
to. IS to keep your Congressmen and your Senators there. (Applause.) 



284 State of New York 



It is a great pleasure and a great honor for me to say that even in my short 
career I knew and have the honor of know^ing well, for a man of my age, your 
distinguished Senator Justin S. Morrill. (Applause.) That I had a similar benefit 
in knowing well your distinguished Senator George F. Edmunds (applause), and 
also that rara avis, a Vermont Democrat, that able jurist, that great diplomat, 
Edward J. Phelps. (Applause.) 

Now I have been a good deal interested in trying to break up in a sense — not 
exactly in a political sense, but in the sense that you all understand it, that of 
feeling and sentiment — the solid South, And when I have suggested that, the 
irreverent southern politician has suggested that it is about time to break up the 
solid North, and reference is made to the fact that Vermont is just about as solid 
as Alabama and Georgia. (Applause.) Well, what the effect on Vermont would 
be if the South were really to break up and some of those States become Republi- 
can, perhaps we cannot say. It is my own theory that Vermont and many another 
northern State has been made solidly Republican because there was a solid South, 
and that one of the benefits of breaking up a solid South would be that there would 
be no solidity anywhere on sectional lines. (Applause.) 

But one thing I am bound to say, that even if Republican majorities are pretty 
certain in Vermont, there is something about a Republican majority in every four 
years that a man who has been a candidate for the Presidency studies with most 
anxious concern, and that is, whether the majority of the people that favor the 
Republican ticket in Vermont at a Presidential election shall amount to more than 
20,000, for if they don't the Republican candidate may as well make no arrange- 
ments, or rather ought to make other arrangements, for the next four years. 
(Applause.) 

One of the things that I congratulate Vermont on and the Vermont management 
is, that at their banquet they have ladies present, not only to sneak in at the end 
and hear the speeches, but to partake of the fare and the good-fellowship. 
(Applause.) And without making invidious comparisons, I think this plan is a 
great improvement over the one we had last night. 

Now, my friends, I am going back, as the Governor did not go back, to the 
historical events of which these various meetings have been a memorial. We have 
discussed at considerable length the effect of this memorial upon our international 
relations. It cannot but be good. It is, as I said this morning, a memorial that in 
this regard you cannot match the world over. (Applause.) But what I am 
especially glad to welcome is the intimacy of relation that such memorials as this 
are apt to increase between this country and Canada. (Applause.) We have been 
going ahead so rapidly in our own country, and our heads have been somewhat 



The Champlain Tercentenary 285 



swelled with the idea that we were carrying on our shoulders all the progress that 
there was in the world. Well, that is not true, as you will realize when you think 
a moment. And we have not been conscious, or as fully conscious as we ought to 
be, that there is on our north, with a border line between it and us of some 5.000 
miles, a young country and a young nation that is looking forward, as well it may, 
to a great national future. They have nine millions of people, but the country is 
still hardly scratched ; it is still undeveloped. They have two great strains — the 
French and the English. They are under a government abroad to which both strains 
acknowledge full loyalty, which has exhibited a great wisdom in its treatment of the 
Dominion, and in giving to the Dominion a practical and almost a complete 
autonomy. The bond between them and the mother country is sweet, but light, 
and there is nothing that prevents the indulging on the part of each, whether French 
or English, in the traditional pride of the race of each. Now, they are going on; 
they are building railroads; they are exercising great discretion in the West, and 
they are taking from us many of our best farmers who are in search of rich wheat 
fields in the West. All these things, if we adopted a short-sighted policy, would 
perhaps arouse in us a jealousy, and a desire to prevent a growth on their part into 
what we might regard as a competitor of ours. That I think is a most short- 
sighted policy. They can't have a prosperity with their neighborhood to us that we 
cannot and must not share. (Applause.) And we cannot have a prosperity on 
our side that they will not derive a benefit from. Therefore each may look upon 
the growth of the other with entire complacency and with an earnest desire that 
the ideals and ambitions that they have formed may be carried to fruition; and I 
am glad to feel, from a national standpoint, that these celebrations, these memorials, 
are a permanent step forward in bringing about that union of feeling and sentiment 
and neighborhood effect that ought to be encouraged between those two great 
powers on the North American continent. (Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — During the progress of this traveHng show there 
has been one act which has always appeared at the head of the pro- 
gramme. I expect as it started in New York that it had all been prepared 
beforehand, but now that it has come to Vermont, things are rather dif- 
ferent. After the speech we heard this morning from the next gentleman 
I shall introduce, it became very evident to us that we had exhausted his 
ideas and that therefore we would have to place him at the end of the 
programme hereafter in order to have him say anything, and therefore, 
ladies and gentlemen, he is placed there to-night. I trust he has imbibed 



286 State of New York 

a little inspiration, which I trust you also have imbibed, and that he will 
be able to give a little of it to you to-night. I introduce to you, or rather 
I present to you Governor Hughes of New York. 

Governor Hughes at the Burlington Banquet 

Governor HuGHES — Governor Prout^, Friends of Vermont, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: The troupe has disbanded; the chief actors have played their part; 
the leading man has gone his way; nothing remains but for one of the supers to 
roll up the rugs and, in a tired and sleepy state, wend his way home. (Laughter.) 

Two thoughts have crowded upon me as I have imbibed inspiration — and 
nothing else. (Laughter.) The one is that if Champlain, as he started on that 
memorable day, had seen the vision of this valley and the Democracy of the future 
working out its problems in contrast with the France of Henry of Navarre, and if in 
particular he had witnessed in imagination the events of this week and had been 
compelled to listen to the addresses that have been delivered — in prophetic antici- 
pation of the consequences of his act — would he have had the nerve to discover 
us? (Laughter.) 

The other thought that has occurred to me is that the Champlain Valley, per 
square mile, has got more out of the President of the United States and the French 
and English Ambassadors than any other section of this country. (Laughter.) If 
there had been no Champlain we ought to have invented one, to have a celebration 
like this. It is worth while to bring together such a combination of intellect and 
ability, and such a representation of great powers, as this valley has witnessed this 
week. We have seen one of the noblest specimens of American manhood that have 
adorned the chair of the Chief Executive (applause), a man in whose clear eyes 
is no guile, who means what he says and does plainly what he proposes, who speaks 
candid and straightforward words to his fellow citizens. It was worth all this 
celebration has cost, to give to our people this intimate association with President 
Taft. (Applause.) We have brought here the brilliant exponent of the traditions 
of France, a cultivated, distinguished representative of the race which Champlain 
honored. We have had no one among all those who have so worthily represented 
this friendly nation across the sea, who in such measure has won our esteem, by 
reason of his attainments, his spiritual appreciation, his regard for our American 
ideals, his sympathetic approach to our people; no one more dear to our hearts, 
more highly commended to our judgment than Ambassador Jusserand. And to 
think that our cup should be filled until it runs over by giving us in addition our old 
friend. Ambassador Bryce, the man that every American student knows as his 
teacher, the man that every intelligent American citizen knows as his mentor, to 



The Champlain Tercentenary 287 



whom we look for advice and correction, for instruction in righteousness, to point 
clear the trail of Democratic success. What a representative of old Mother Eng- 
land! (Applause.) Despite the fatigue of this moment and the extreme efforf 
that it costs to say anything, I should like to travel in that company as long as I 
could stand on my feet, and if I could do no more than say " ditto " in a faint 
voice, I would go with them to the end, (Applause.) 

Now, I have mentioned these nations not intending to disparage our friends 
from Canada, because they have not risen yet to that altitude of national life — but 
when you need a dramatic company doing a continuous performance of this sort, 
they play a role second to none (applause), and so we rejoice in our Canadian 
friends, and marvel at the exuberance of their eloquence. I am not going to say 
anything about " ice " or " snow." I was taken severely to task for that. I was 
informed I had committed an unpardonable affront in saying anything about ice 
and snow in Canada, and after my last heart to heart talk with the Postmaster- 
General of the Dominion of Canada, I am prepared to asseverate that the climate 
there has changed (laughter), and I know what has changed it. It is the warmth 
of the hearts of those Frenchmen under an English flag. (Laughter and applause.) 

Oh, if we could only count up the value of this reunion and celebration. The 
trouble is we can't weigh it in ordinary scales ; we can't measure it with a commercial 
yard-stick; it is difficult to grasp. If our boys and girls will only begin really to 
love American history! I have said several times that if there had been anything 
more discovered in I 609, the State would have been bankrupted ; these celebrations 
are costly — it was very thoughtless of Champlain and Hudson to do this thing 
in one year. (Laughter.) They evidently were not prophets. Whatever they 
were in the way of discoverers, they didn't see the burdens they were laying upon 
an unsuspecting progeny. (Laughter.) But if our children would only love 
American history! It is too bad that it is taught so much in the early years, before 
the import of it is apprehended, or can justly be appreciated. I do not know what 
courses you have in the University of Vermont, but I suppose you have everything 
that you ought to have, and more, too, like most universities. But I do wish that 
in our colleges our boys would get " chock full " of American history. Not simply 
a little constitutional history at the end of the course — with a faint remembrance 
of some dates learned in the secondary school, but without any real knowledge of 
what has happened to their country in the course of its development. It will do us 
all good if we go back to our school books, and with access of interest study the 
history of the land which we profess to love, and do love. And then if we would 
only safeguard some of our sacred spots, some of those treasure places of the fancy, 
some of these rich soils for the imagination, and prevent the desecrating touch! 
Think of the battlefield of Saratoga! It ought to be preserved as a Mecca for 



288 State of New York 



good Americans and for good Britishers, too, because we can all go to Saratoga 
to-day with clasped hands and friendly words and talk over the old campaign in 
amity. We must do more and more of this work of memorializing, of preserving. 
We cannot be true Americans simply by studying present day problems as such, 
unrelated to the past. We cannot achieve the destiny which we should achieve by 
mere introspection or by dealing with what lies immediately around us. The best 
study for the man of action is biography; the best study for the statesman is history, 
and as all boys are prospective statesmen in this country, they ought to be thoroughly 
charged and recharged with history, and with biography of men of light and leading. 

We have gathered together these representatives of the nations, and that forms 
a guarantee of peace. Why, we could never have any trouble with France or with 
England after this week. (Laughter and applause.) It is impossible to think of 
it. We have strengthened the bonds of our international friendship. But after all, 
we don't have peace for the sake of peace, we don't have peace simply to have an 
absence of bloodshed, desirable as that is. We do not have celebrations merely 
to honor the character of famous men of the past. We want peace to provide a 
proper basis for obtaining the right rewards of industry, to secure the resources of 
leisure, and to make certain the foundation of social justice. (Applause.) 

We have peace. What shall we do with it? We have the inspiration of the 
high mindedness of Champlain, of the purity and loyalty of Montcalm; we have 
the inspiration of the splendid soldierly qualities of Lord Howe; you have in Ver- 
mont inspiration from a thousand sons who have done honor to the com.mon wealth. 
But what shall we do with it? Here we are now, inspired, fully inspired, filled 
with a week of inspiration from the most powerful sources. What are you going 
to do with it? My friends, it is not that we should turn to whimsical schemes of 
legislation, or that we should consult the fancy for some novel method of meeting 
the difficulties of the day; it is not that we should suppose that by some divine gift 
we may find a new procedure by which all obstacles may be satisfactorily over- 
come. Let us make our present institutions work as they ought to work, and execute 
our laws without favoritism and run our politics without corrupt rings. Let our 
officers do their duty according to the statutes, impartially, and with love of justice. 
Let our citizens appreciate their opportunity under institutions designed to give 
equality of civil rights. Then we shall realize what peace is intended to bestow, 
and what the world's amity may help us to secure. (Great applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 289 

Governor Prouty — The burnt offering gave us a pretty good key- 
note. The next speaker whom I will introduce to you is one that I can 
say from the bottom of my heart I am pleased to see here to-night. From 
my associations with him during the past few days I have come to learn 
of his true worth, of his sterling qualities, and of his delightful companion- 
ship. I have found him a gentleman who loves this country — I mean that 
he has respect for it, and I believe he does have the same love for it that 
the nation he represents always has had. It is therefore with great plea- 
sure that I introduce to you now the Ambassador of France. 

Remarks of Ambassador Jusserand 

Ambassador JusSERAND — Mr. President, Coverrxor Prouty, Your Excellencies, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: A modest member of the travelling show, I have to go 
back to Washington following the President himself. We are lured there by no 
lake bluer than yours, no cooler breeze, no siren's song, but by a thing, the magnetic 
attraction of which, we cannot resist. It is called the tariff. 

Yielding to it, I must however, before beginning our journey south express to 
you my thanks and congratulations for the ceremonies at which we have been 
present for the last three days. We owe the credit for their beauty, and the pleasure 
derived from them to the hospitable and friendly disposition of the people of New 
York and the people of Vermont; to the two Commissions which devised with 
such success so artistic a programme, and to the eloquent Governors of those two 
States, our honored leaders during these days. We owe credit also to another 
personage of some importance on this occasion, namely Champlain himself. Cham- 
plain was a right man to commemorate, and when you choose a right man, the 
commemoration cannot fail to go very well. 

My friend and colleague, the British Ambassador, spoke this morning of the 
future and what would take place 50 or 100 years from now. His true description 
and prophecy are the more striking when you look back and think of the past. What 
was that past? The news of America reaching old Europe when Champlain was 
living on this side of the water does not resemble much those now daily flashed 
across the ocean. In one of his plays, that great dramatist, second only to Shakes- 
peare, Ben Jonson, has given us a sample of such news dating from the time when 
Champlain was living in Quebec; and the sample is as follows: 

* * * We hear of a colony of cooks 
To be set ashore o' the coast of America, 
For the conversion of the cannibals. 
And making them good eating Christians. 
20 



290 State of New York 



What progress since then! This very banquet where the refined tastes of 
" good eating Christians " have been so well satisfied is a sufficient proof thereof, 
and may be accepted as the token and emblem of the progress accomplished in 
all that concerns man's life on these shores. Senator Root in an admirable address, 
the other day, explained why the mighty changes which have occurred did occur, 
and he pointed out the considerable part played by his own friends, the hot-headed 
Iroquois. To them we owe certainly a debt of gratitude, since it is due to them, 
as we heard, that Senator Root himself speaks Enghsh, and pretty good English, 
too. But giving their due to the Iroquois, I beg to recall that there were other 
causes at play and that if the French flag does not cover any more this part of 
the earth supplementary motives should be taken into consideration. There was once 
a battle and there was in that battle a soldier fighting on the top of an entrench- 
ment, and the people behind him were shouting to him, saying: " Be brave, be 
brave! " And the soldier looked back and said: *' I am brave, but I am not 
numerous enough." It was the same with us, we were brave but we were not 
numerous enough. We were not numerous enough; a friendly flag but not ours 
waves o'er these regions; but we have not disappeared from them; French blood and 
French language are now abundantly represented here; so much so that I must 
take the liberty of turning, with your permission to my kinsmen in this very assembly 
and of addressing a few words to them. 

(The Ambassador then spoke in French.) 

The France of to-day has every reason to join you in your tributes to the 
memory of her illustrious son Champlain; for the examples he left have not been 
forgotten and the task he attempted three centuries ago on these shores has been 
resumed by France on others in our own days. Since we have been a Republic, 
we have prodigiously increased our colonial empire not merely to our own private 
good: lands of human sacrifice have become lands of prosperous trade and of 
quiet development. In no way has France better shown her undying vitality than 
by producing so many modern discoverers and civilizers of remote regions, by produc- 
ing new Champlains. 

Many of the words spoken during these past days have deeply touched me, as 
they showed that, in your mind, the France of now was associated with the France 
of old who sent here the worthy whose deeds we are celebrating. For those feelings 
of sympathy so warmly expressed, in the course of these memorable celebrations, the 
respected chief of the State giving the example, the Representative of the French 
Republic expresses to you the gratitude of his nation. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 291 

Governor Prouty — I have been very much interested to-day in Hs- 
tening to the addresses which have been made, and I think we must all of 
us have realized, especially since the last, that probably there has not 
been very much done except by Frenchmen; at the same time there is 
always two sides to a question, and it seems to me that the other side 
ought to have something to say now, and no one can represent the other 
side better than the gentleman that I shall introduce, Ambassador Bryce 
of England. 

Remarks of Ambassador Bryce 

Ambassador Bryce — Mr. Governor, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I must decline the arduous though no doubt magnificent task which your Governor 
would lay upon me of maintaining the claims of my country to her share in the 
making of the civilization of the world. That stroUing company which has been 
referred to by the President of the United States is now giving its very last per- 
formance for this season; and although, speaking for one member of that company, 
he is exceedingly sorry to depart from the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain, 
yet he is sensible that after three speeches a day — and this is the third day of it — 
his ideas are all gone and nothing is left but a flow of words. I therefore rise, 
ladies and gentlemen, only to say two things, which can be said very shortly. 

The first is to render to you my hearty thanks for the great kindness of your 
invitation here and for the immense pleasure which it has given me to be present 
and take part in this celebration. I have never been at any celebration which has 
brought to one's mind a greater variety of ideas, which has more set one thinking 
upon all sorts of things, past, present and future, and which has suggested a large 
number of new lights upon the history of this part of your continent. 

The other thing I have to do, is to call attention to one subject which among 
all the speeches that have been delivered during these festivities in the State of 
Vermont and the State of New York has never yet been alluded to; and yet that 
subject is perhaps one of the most important of them all; because when you have 
talked about the beauties of the lake, and the early dwellers along the lake and 
the discovery of and the navigation of the lake and the battles that have been fought 
round the lake, you ought to say something about the population of the lake. And 
nobody yet has said one word about the fish. (Laughter.) 

Now ladies and gentlemen, I desire to call your attention to the fish in Lake 
Champlain. It is a subject of great importance. I am surprised to see a smile. 
It is not a laughing matter at all. It might very nearly have become a crying 
matter. The presence of fish was observed by Champlain himself, as my friend 



292 State of New York 



the French Ambassador remarked yesterday. The fish were noted by Champlain 
as being large and abundant. Now, those fish are still a very important element in 
the value of the lake. They are migratory in their habits. They move from 
United States waters into Canadian waters and back again, and the taking of them 
is an important industry both for United States fishermen and for Canadian fisher- 
men. Now here, ladies and gentlemen, you have all the materials for a quarrel 
of the first magnitude. Those of you who know history — and on these historic 
shores I may assume that history is one of your favorite studies — know that there 
is no subject about which more international troubles and quarrels have arisen than 
the subject of fish, and you know when anything has got into a great mess, we 
say it is a " pretty kettle of fish." 

Now, on this question of fish there was here the opportunity for a very pretty 
quarrel to have arisen. There were complaints on the part of the Vermont fisher- 
men, and complaints also from many of the Canadian fishermen, about the way 
in which the other traders conducted fishing operations, and feeling was getting 
quite hot. But what happened? The United States Government proposed to 
my Government to make a treaty v/hich should regulate the fisheries of all the great 
border lakes, including Lake Champlain, and the Canadian Government and His 
Britannic Majesty's Government at home gladly welcomed that proposition. Mr. 
Root and I conferred upon the subject and agreed on the terms of a treaty, and 
under that treaty the two Governments have appointed Commissioners, one for you 
and one for us, and those Commissioners are now making regulations for the con- 
duct of the fisheries. Those regulations are, I believe, likely to give general satis- 
faction to those who understand the subject, and in particular to those fishermen 
living along Lake Champlain. Thus I may say we feel confident that by means 
of this treaty and under these new regulations all causes of dispute will be avoided, 
and the supply of fish will be largely increased. This is the last incident in the 
history of Lake Champlain. It is a very agreeable sequel to the former wars of 
French and English and Americans. It is an omen for good relations in all other 
matters when a question relating to so delicate a subject as fish can be amicably 
settled. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen, as I have referred to Canada, I desire to thank 
the President of the United States on behalf of my countrymen — that is to say, of 
the United Kingdom and Canada, for we are all one — I want to thank him for 
the wise and friendly words that he has spoken about Canada. They will find 
an echo in Canada. I will not attempt to add to his words because no one has so 
far as I know better described or could more adequately describe, the relations 
which ought to subsist between those two nations dwelling in neighborly friendship 
and mutual help on the same continent. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 293 



Having made this acknowledgment, let me say also that I have a little personal 
piece of thanks to give the President. He wished to honor Vermont as she deserves 
to be honored. He was good enough to select for comparison with Vermont my 
own mother country of Scotland. I welcome that comparison. We Scots are 
glad to be compared with a State which in the robust vigor of her sons and in her 
love of liberty is one of the States of the American Union to which my country 
might most gladly be compared. 

I noticed another similarity (which was not referred to by the President) between 
Scotland and Vermont. Both the men of Scotland and the men of Vermont have 
a well-known habit of emigrating to other parts of the world, and wherever they 
emigrate they are respected and they prosper. (Applause.) I wish to say that 
I have met very many Vermonters and many Scotchmen in many parts of this con- 
tinent and indeed in other continents also, and nearly all of them have been respected 
and successful men, keeping their hearts warm to the country whence they came. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me once more convey to your two Governors 
and to each and all of you the hearty greetings of my country. I was specially 
commissioned and directed by my Government to come here and represent Great 
Britain and the British Empire at your celebration (applause), to assure you of 
the interest which that celebration excites among us and to tell you with what 
sympathy and with what affection Britain follows your fortunes and rejoices in 
your greatness. (Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — The pleasure which I should have had in intro- 
ducing the next speaker has been taken away from me because he has been 
introduced, at least his subject has been introduced, by one so much better 
fitted than I that it is entirely unnecessary for me to say more. When 
the President spoke of our Canadian friends and of that great country to 
the north of us, he told more than I could possibly tell, and he told you 
what we ought to do in regard to that country. It gives me, therefore, 
great pleasure to introduce to you a representative sent here to help out 
in this celebration, the Honorable Rodolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral of Canada. (Applause.) 

Toast: "Canada" — Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux 

Your Excellencies, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Although there is no toast 
to which I would be more desirous of doing full justice than that of Canada, with 
which you have been kind enough to couple my name, yet I would remind you 
that I have already once to-day spoken at some length, and I know that you will not 



294 State of New York 



therefore expect me this evening to attempt to play the orator. Some few obvious 
remarks are all that I shall offer you on a subject which of all others, would 
stimulate eloquence and stir the imagination — that of one's native country. For 
the third time during this brilliant week of pageantry and festival I find myself 
in the same gathering with your distinguished President and each time I rejoice 
the more at my good fortune. For we in Canada are almost as proud of Mr. 
Taft being President as you are in the United States, and I sometimes find it 
difficult to believe we are not really countrymen of each other. I was referring 
yesterday, Mr. Chairman, in yet another speech I had been called upon to deliver 
on this prolific subject of Canada, to the number of American citizens who have 
lately been coming into Canada to live, but none of these western settlers have, I 
assure you, settled in Canada half as often as President Taft. Your President, 
Mr. Chairman, has settled down in Canada promptly at the beginning of summer 
for several years, but unfortunately with the ending of summer he has " settled up," 
and left us, just as do those gay feathered visitors whose stay is all too short. But 
if we have not been able to keep Mr. Taft with us we have returned him to you 
in good condition year by year, for I am proud to believe that no small share of 
that splendid health, those buoyant spirits he possesses, are the fruit of those glorious 
summers on the St. Lawrence, and I promise you that if after a year or two of the 
cares of office you find your President getting pale and frail, and you send him 
back to us for a summer, we will do our duty faithfully and return him to you as 
well as ever. 

Nor must I forget to point to a record claim which Canadians may well advance 
to part ownership in your President, whether as to Mr. Taft or his predecessor or 
his successor, when in the course of time, some eight, twelve or sixteen years from 
now he shall have a successor. Let me remind you that you have received into 
the republic some hundreds of thousands of Canadian citizens, men and women 
whom I admit we could ill spare, and whom we saw with reluctance cross to your 
side of the border. But since they did not stay with us we are glad at least that 
they went to help build up a great nation kindred to our own and bound to us 
by an infinite number of ties. And we have not only helped thus with our bone 
and sinew to build up your nation, we have not only sent you what we may without 
boastfulness claim to be one of the most progressive elements in your population, 
one that assists rather than retards you in the wonderful process of race assimilation 
in which the republic is ceaselessly engaged, but we have stood shoulder to shoulder 
with you to preserve the Union. The little Canada of fifty years ago sent no less 
than 45,000 men to fight in the ranks of the North, to maintain the ascendancy of 
the Stars and Stripes. That is one of the great facts of history, a fact which we 
are proud to remember in Canada, and which constitutes a link of golden sentiment. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 295 



a bond that may never be severed, between your country and mine, between 
Canadians and Americans. 

I think, Mr. Chairman, I have justified my statement that Canadians may claim 
part ownership in your President, but the kinship of the race is a pleasant subject, 
and it is well to dwell upon it yet for a moment. Our common language alone 
wipes out a multitude of barriers such as commonly exist between nation and nation, 
causing prejudices, confusion and misunderstanding, and enables either of us to feel 
at home in the other's country, even though another flag than our own flies above us. 
But with a common tongue comes a common literature, and we in Canada and 
you in the United States have an equal pleasure and an equal ownership in the 
glories of English literature. Is not the common right to Shakespeare alone a 
constant source of pride and joy, a binding force which cannot be equalled by laws 
or legislatures. Well has Carlyle said: " Here is an English King whom no 
time or chance, parliament or continuation of parliaments can dethrone! This 
King, Shakespeare, does he not shine, a crowned sovereignty, over us all, the 
noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs, indestructible, really more valuable 
in that point of view than any other means or appliance whatever." What American 
or Canadian goes to Shakespeare's shrine at Stratford but feels as strong a sense 
of ownership in this sovereign of the intellect as do those who still live in the island- 
cradle of the race; and as with Shakespeare so with the lesser princes of English 
literature. Milton and Pope and Byron and Burns and Shelley and Keats till we 
come down almost to our own time with Browning and Tennyson in poetry and 
Scott and Dickens and Thackeray and George Eliot and countless others in fiction; 
are not Ruskin and Carlyle names cherished in all the English-speaking world, 
whether it be in Boston or Montreal, in London or Edinburgh, in Melbourne or in 
Johannesburg? When you celebrated a few years ago the centenary of your great 
Emerson, the Aristotle of New England, did not the tributes that came from across 
the Atlantic equal those which America itself paid the memory of the sage? Is 
not a memorial of the author of " Hiawatha " and " The Village Blacksmith," 
songs that breathe the atmosphere of the new world, to be found in Westminster 
Abbey, the Valhalla of the British race? Do we not in fact find the whole 
brilliant group of Nineteenth century New England poets and teachers loved and 
honored through all the English-speaking world — Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, 
Lowell, Whittier. Nor must I forget Parkman, the classic historian of the past 
century, a name peculiarly grateful to Canadian ears since no writer has equalled 
the fascinating pages in which this gifted American depicts the romance and the 
tragedy of the pioneer era of our country. Particularly, too, should we to-day 
remember Parkman, seeing that it is he who has told for us the story of the stirring 
events we are now celebrating. There is an entire community in all these great 



296 State of New York 



names, a joint ownership giving us in Canada rights with which we do not intend 
to part, and weaving ever-strengthening ties of love and affection between the kindred 
people who have partnership therein. 

I would remind you, too, of another historic navigator whose tercentenary is 
celebrated this present year, Henry Hudson, who stands to the English race as 
Champlain stands to the French, and whose name is perpetuated in yet more famous 
pieces of water, the beautiful Hudson river, with you of the south and the majestic 
Hudson bay, with us of the north. Here once more, in the deeds of the Hudson 
and their fruit to-day, we have the same division of ownership, the same binding 
influence of history. Our past is inextricably interwoven with yours. Such a partner- 
ship gives an added zest to the tribute we yield to these old heroes of Europe whose 
undaunted hearts and iron resolution won for us by years of suffering and privation 
the two rich and wonderful lands we control to-day. It is curious to reflect that 
both Champlain and Hudson were possessed with the same dream that inspired 
Columbus, that of finding the road to the East by going West. Hudson believed 
he was on the way to China when he entered the broad river that bears his name, 
and when he knew he had failed he tried again a year later, and was more con- 
vinced than ever when he sailed the waters of the great inland Sea of the North 
that he had at last found the passage to the Orient. Such achievements under such 
circumstances must intensify the respect and veneration in which we hold the names 
and memories of those who thus slowly and painfully traced the secrets of the new 
world. They found not always what they sought, it is true, but not infrequently 
won their greatest triumphs in what appeared their direst failures. If they won 
triumphs at all under such circumstances it is because they were animated by high 
ideals, by ardent patriotism and by a passionate desire to add to the strength and 
vigor and glory of the stock from which they sprung. 

Reverting for a moment to Champlain, of whom we know much more than 
history tells us of Hudson, we may say of him that he was far more than navigator. 
He was statesman and missionary as well as explorer, and it is not too much to 
say that the leading spirits of those who worked with Champlain were in their way 
as ardent missionary reformers as any whom we to-day send out to China and India, 
or to darkest Africa. Champlain aimed to Christianize the new world, and many 
who followed after him, as Parkman's pages tell us, were martyrs to this lofty and 
inspiring hope. May we not with advantage to-day pattern ourselves after these 
line spirits of our remote past. Is it not your own Emerson who says " Hitch your 
wagon to a star? " Let us continue the development of the lands we have received 
in trust, and continue also the high aim and noble ambition of our predecessors, and 




W. B. MOOERS 

Mayor of Plattsburgh, N. Y. 




JAMES E. BURKE 

Mayor of Burlington, Vt. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 297 

if we do not always accomplish precisely what we set out to do we may at least 
be sure that efforts and energies so spent will leave humanity the richer. 
In the words of the poet: 

Nothing worth winning is won with ease. 

The goal worth reaching is sacred ground. 
And it can't be reached in a gentle walk. 

Or a burst of speed and a leap and bound. 
The eagle of victory perches high. 

And the climbing soul has far to climb. 
With death and doubt in the vales below. 

And the stars far off on the hills of time. 

Before the speaking was ended. President Taft was obliged to leave 
for his return to Washington. The French and British Ambassadors also 
returned to the Capital that evening. The Governor and members of 
the New York Commission returned in the late hours of the night to 
Hotel Champlain at Blutf Point. 



VII. FRIDAY. JULY 9: AT ISLE LA MOTTE 

299 



VII. FRIDAY. JULY 9: AT ISLE LA MOTTE, VT. 

THE TERCENTENARY OBSERVANCES closed on Friday, July 9th, at 
Isle La Motte. Although somewhat remote from the centers of 
population, and although the programme had not the elaborate 
features of those at Plattsburgh and Burlington, yet it was generally felt 
that in many essential aspects the celebration reached its most significant 
expression and true climax here. The island itself has the unique interest 
of being in all probability the first land visited by Champlain in what is 
now the United States. It is a fair reading in his own narrative to con- 
strue his first landing in his voyage of discovery as on the shores of Isle La 
Motte. Here, too, in 1 666, was made the first French military and relig- 
ious establishment in the valley. At old Fort Ste. Anne, the site now 
known as Sandy Point, was set up in the year named, the first Christian 
altar in the present State of Vermont. The early associations of Isle La 
Motte, as have been detailed elsewhere in this report, are with some of the 
most notable soldiers and pioneers of the church under the French regime 
in North America. Here came the great military captain whose name the 
island bears; here, too, were Dolbeau, Dubois, Dollier de Casson, and 
many another famed in history ; especially, of hallowed memory in French- 
American history, the pioneer bishop of Canada, the revered Laval. 

These and other significant facts of the very early history of the island 
are alluded to in some of the speeches of the day, notably in that of 
Senator Henry W. Hill, in pages following. 

The Island's permanent population scarce exceeds 500, but in pro- 
portion to its numbers, no community had outstripped these people in 
the thoroughness of their preparations. The approach to the island is 
had under normal conditions by a bridge from the Vermont side and 
by a ferry from the New York side. Most of the visitors on this day, 
however, came by steamboat or other water craft. Two troops of the 
15th U. S. Cavalry and Co, " M," 1st Vermont Infantry, shared in 
the exercises, and it is stated that this was the first time on record that 

301 



302 State of New York 

regular United States troops ever set foot on Isle La Motte. The torpedo 
boats which were on the lake for the celebration week anchored off shore, 
and the band of 1 50 Indians, with spectators numbering several thousand, 
gathered under the great pines at Sandy Point, forming a scene of extra- 
ordinary picturesqueness. 

Governor Prouty of Vermont, attended by his military staff and accom- 
panied by numerous guests, came to the island on the steamer Ticonderoga 
from Burlington. The 1st Regiment Band from Brattleboro and Co. 
" M " of the Vermont National Guard, Captain O. H. Parker, Com- 
mander, were the Governor's escort. The St. Albans Choral Union of 
three hundred voices and some thirty members of Belleview Chapter, 
Daughters of the American Revolution, were also in attendance. The 
ladies of this last-named organization shared in one of the most interesting 
features of the day, which was the dedication of a boulder monument 
bearing a bronze tablet to the memory of Col. Seth Warner and Captain 
Remember Baker, heroes of the Revolution. 

From the New York side, the steamer brought Governor Hughes and 
Mrs. Hughes, members of the New York State Champlain Commission, 
and numerous other officials or specially invited guests, among them 
Lieutenant de Vaisseau Benoist d'Azy, naval attache of the French 
Ambassador, who on this occasion was to represent the Republic of 
France in the place of his superior who had been obliged to return to 
Washington. 

In the throng that gathered were many French-Americans and French- 
speaking Canadians from beyond the border. Nowhere else in the valley 
had the French element been more manifest. This had been especially 
noticeable at services held here earlier in the week. The exercises of 
Champlain Sunday at the shrine of Ste. Anne had been of exceptional 
impressiveness. Here, in the open air, in nature's cathedral, pillared with 
giant pines, under the blue vault of heaven, was celebrated pontifical 
mass, attended by probably 1 ,500 devout worshippers. Before the little 
chapel erected in honor of Ste. Anne, the Fathers of the Congregation of 
St. Edmond and the pious congregation remained for four hours. Mgr. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 303 

Roy, auxiliary bishop of Quebec, officiated. Mgr. Cloarec, adminis- 
trator of the Diocese of BurHngton, also shared in the service, as did the 
Most Rev. Abbe Mitre, of Oka, Don Antoine. Mgr. Lindsey, arch- 
deacon of Quebec, and Abbe Laramee of Redford, N. Y., served as 
deacon and subdeacon. The Abbe Marion, cure of Ste. Anne of Ottawa, 
was master of ceremonies. The boy choir from the church of St. Peter, at 
Plattsburgh, under the direction of Wilfrid Tremblay, chanted with 
superb effect Bartholomew's mass to orchestral accompaniment. It was 
I I o'clock when the service began. The address of welcome was spoken 
by the Rev. Thomas A. Prevel, superior-general of the congregation of 
St. Edmond, who had come from England to share in this celebration. 
In a magnificent address he paid his respects to Mgr. Roy, as well as to 
Governor Prouty, and reviewed in glowing terms the epoch and achieve- 
ments of Champlain. Mgr. Roy replied to the address of welcome, 
giving a swift but vivid review of events which have made Isle La Motte, 
and especially this spot where they were gathered, illustrious in military 
and religious history. Mgr. Roy recognized it as providential that, 241 
years after this spot was first visited by Mgr. Laval — then a savage 
wilderness — he was now presiding there, a successor to Laval, over 
so imposing a religious ceremony, attended by such a throng of the faith- 
ful. " The tree of Christ," he exclaimed, " is never a barren tree; it 
always yields fruit." 

The sermon of the occasion was preached by the Rev. Abbe Lecocq, 
Superior of the Sulpicians of Montreal. After the apostolic benediction, 
another sermon was preached in English by the Rev. Dennis O'Sullivan, 
of St. Albans. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, before solemn benediction, 
the Rev, Father L'Oiseau, S. J., of Montreal, pronounced a final 
allocution. 

At the termination of the religious ceremonies. Senator Henry W. Hill 
was presented to the congregation and spoke briefly in eulogy of Cham- 
plain, with expressions of warm sympathy for his French-American 
countrymen. 



304 State of New York 

As the beautiful Sabbath afternoon waned, the pilgrims and visitors 
departed by boat. 

At Ste. Anne's on the morning of Friday, July 9th, religious services 
were again held. Among the participants was the Rt. Rev. Thomas A. 
Prevel, who delivered the following devout and beautifully poetic 
address : 

Mometgneur, Messieurs les Couverneurs: La presence simultanee des autorites 
religieuses et civiles dans toutes ces fetes; les actions de graces rendues en commun 
a la bonte de Dieu; le fremissement d'enthousiasme qui fait vibrer les coeurs comma 
la brise fait frissonner les drapeaux; les hommages adresses a I'illustre explorateur 
au nom de la Patrie, au nom de I'Eglise, au nom des peuples dissemines sur tous 
les points de ce territoire, au nom meme de ces tribus sauvages dont les representants, 
dans leurs costumes pittoresques, font revivre dans notre imagination les emouvantes 
realites de Juillet 1609, tous les elements de ces grandioses manifestations parlenl 
haul de I'importance attachee a la decouverte de ce lac et surtout de la transcendance 
du genie du grand Frangais et du grand chretien que fut Samuel Champlain. 
Ce serait I'avilir que d'en faire un vulgaire trafiquant de fourrures; ne bornez meme 
pas son role a I'ardeur, noble pourtant, des conquetes geographiques, ce serait 
I'amoindrir. La science qu'il y deploie, les intuitions de son genie, la surete de 
son coup d'oeil, son energie, son endurance dans les fatigues, centre les difficultes 
qui surgissent sous ses pas, I'egalent a Colomb, a Cortes, a Cartier, a Stanley, a 
Shackleton. II leur est superieur a tous en ce qu'il a ete un pasteur de peuple, un 
semeur d'humanisation. 

Planter un drapeau sur un rivage nouveau, c'est affirmer la conquete du sol, 
I'assujettissement des habitants, la mainmise sur ses richesses, c'est faire acte 
d'autorite, ce n'est pas faire acte d'humanite. Suivez Champlain dans sa carriere 
si mouvementee et si feconde. D'etape vous le verrez s'elever vers I'ideal sublime 
sur lequel est fixe son regard; edifier une nouvelle France; plus que cela, faire du 
Canada une France catholique des ses reves. Et avec quels hommes? Sont ce des 
hommes? Lorsqu'au lendemain de la fameuse journee du 29 Juillet oii les 4 
balles de I'arquebuse de Champlain avaient decide de la victoire, les sauvages 
descendaient ce lac dans I'ivresse de leur triomphe, ils morcelaient, membre par 
membre, a chaque halte, un malheureux prisonnier, a ce point que le rude marin 
emu mais impuissant a attendrir leur barbarie n'oblint qu'une grace, celle d'achever 
d'un coup la pitoyable victime. C'est done bien d'humanite qu'il fallait tout d'abord 
infuser dans Tame de ces etres qui n'avient d'humain que les traits du visage. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 305 



Voila le point de depart. Quel sera le point d'arrivee? Samedi dernier a 
Swanton, autour d'un mouvement religieux, une vingtaine de sauvages, de tribus 
jadis irreconciliables, sauvages aux traits durs, a la peau rougeatre, a I'oeil d'epervier, 
aux vetements bizarres, s'etaient ranges. Au moment oil le pretre eleve la main 
pour benir la pierre commemorative, ils echangent un regard et ce fut un curieux 
spectacle: toutes ces faces s'adoucirent, les traits se detendent, et les mains, d'un 
geste spontane, enlevent cette aureole de plumage qui reste sur leur front comme un 
dernier vestige de I'antique ferocite? L'ame est chretienne, il ne reste de barbare que 
I'apparition. Quel chemin a parcourir pour atteindre ces sommets! 

A la violence substituer la justice, a la rapine le droit ; au caprice substituer la loi, 
a I'instinct brutal de sauvage la pensee morale; de la main crispee qui dechire faire 
la main delicate qui pense les blessures; des dents qui grincent et des levres qui 
maudissent faire les levres qui consolent et qui prient. La tache est surhumaine, la 
foi de Champlain ne craint pas de I'aborder. Ne demandez pas a la force qui 
s'impose la creation du bien. Les mousquets furent reserves pour la defense. Une 
etoile toute nouvelle va entrer en campagne. Voici I'avant garde, les francs-tireurs du 
bon Dieu, les missionaires. Pas plus que leur mere la Saint Eglise, ils n'ont a 
changer le genre de vie de leurs sauvages. Mais ils se font nomades avec eux; ils 
s'attachent a leur pas; ils vivent de leur vie; ils les aiment et les civiliseront par 
I'amour. Puis vient I'Etat-Major de I'armee; c'est la sainte hierarchie, pretres et 
eveques, la paroisse et la diocese. Et alors, semblable aux grandes etoiles au milieu 
de leurs nebuleuses surgisses ?a et la des eglises! Sur quatre murailles de bois une 
toiture de branchages, une forme de clocher, et dans les airs brille au loin le signe du 
ralliement, la croix. Pauvres sauvages saluez, c'est la misericorde, c'est I'amour, 
c'est la maison de Dieu. 

On parle quelquefois de l'ame des choses. Ne croirait-on pas aussi que certains 
lieux ont une ame qui s'impressionne des evenemenls dont ils furent temoins? 

Hier soir, a I'heure ou la nature s'enveloppe d'ombre et de silence, j'etais venu 
m'asseoir solitarie et reveur au pied de la croix blanche qui etend ses grands bras 
comme un appel ininterrompu a la confiance et a I'amour. Et il me sembla que des 
ombres glissaient a la surface tranquille des eaux; le passee se levait du repos ou 
dorment les generations et remontait la voie douloureuse ou triomphale que fut tour 
a tour ce large sillon destine par Dieu aux grandes choses. 

La gloire militaire passa, et sous les plis flottants de leurs pavilions nationaux 
marchaient flerement en ordre de battaille les Americains avec Macdonough, Arnold, 
Warner, St. Clair, Schuyler, Allen; les anglais a la suite de Amherst, Burgoj'ne; les 
F'ran^ais sur les pas de Levis, Bourlamaque, de Vaudreuil, Montcalm, et le vieux 
fort tressaillit, et au passage du couleurs, le canon tonnait; a tous ces braves le fort 
Sainte Anne rendait les honneurs. 
21 



306 State of New York 



La civilisation passa. C'etait 300 ans de progres sortis de cet acte fecond que 
fut la decouverte de ce lac. Et, des fermes, des usines, des villages, des villes, de 
tous les foyers de vie dissemines dans le New York et le Vermont, s'elevait le joyeux 
murmure de la richesse terrienne, agricole, industrielle, commerciale; parole de la 
justice, de la vie civile; ordres de la magistrature, du gouvernment, emanations de tout 
ce grand organisme qu' assure I'ordre et la paix dans la nation. 

La Religion passa, et avec elle un defile incomparable de pretres, de missionaires, 
de Religieux, et la petite chapelle Ste Anne, premier abri du divin Sauveur en ce 
pays chantant des noms chers au coeur chretien: Dubois, Dolbeau, Dollier de Casson, 
Marquette, Jogues, Fremin. Voici le noble cohorte des eveques, depuis nos 
seigneurs Michaud et de Goesbriand au Venerable de Laval comptait dans ses rangs 
des prelats commes les Plessis, Cheverus, Carroll, Rappe, McCloskey, Fitzpatrick. 

Un dernier cortege se dessina, le premier en date, le plus etrange, le plus touchant. 
Un fremissement courut dans les arbres de nos bois. lis avaient reconnu leurs 
antiques sauvages, Iroquois, Hurons, Abenakis, Algonquins dont leurs fourres 
profonds avaient abrite les sanglants conciliabules. Mais voici qu'au milieu d'eux 
Champlain s'apparut et il me semblait que la gloire militaire, la Prosperite civile, la 
Religion lui adressaient leurs felicitations sur son oeuvre sublime. Et Champlain, 
d'une main indiqua la croix du lac, de Tautre montra ses sauvages convertis; et ses 
levres prononcerent lentement ces simples paroles: " La salut d'une ame vaut mieux 
que la conquete d'un monde." 

(Translation) 

The simultaneous presence of the religious and civic authorities in all these fetes; 
the thanksgivings offered in common for the goodness of God ; the thrill of enthusiasm 
which makes our hearts beat as the breeze makes the flags flutter; the tribute offered 
to the illustrious explorer in the name of Country, in the name of the Church, in the 
name of the People spread over every part of this region, in the name even of those 
aborigines whose representatives, in picturesque costume, revive in our imagination 
the stirring realities of July, 1 609 — all the elements of these grand manifestations 
speak emphatically of the importance attached to the discovery of this lake, and 
especially of the transcendent genius of that great Frenchman and great Christian, 
Samuel Champlain. 

To regard him as a common fur trader is to degrade him; even to restrict his 
character to the ardor, however noble, of geographical conquest, would be to 
belittle him. In the science which he showed; in all the intuitions of his genius; in 
his clear vision, his energy, his endurance of fatigue, notwithstanding the difficulties 
which beset his steps, he was the equal of Columbus, of Cortez, of Cartier, of 
Stanley, of Shackleton. He is superior to all of them, in that he was a pastor to 
his people, a sower of the humanities. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 307 



To plant a flag upon a new coast, is to assert the conquest of the soil, the subju- 
gation of the inhabitants, the seizure of its wealth — that is an act of authority, but 
not of humanity. Follow Champlain in his active and fruitful career. Step by 
step he raises himself towards the sublime ideal upon which his gaze is fixed; to 
found a new France; more than that, to make of Canada the Catholic France of 
his dreams. And with what men? Are these indeed men? When on the day 
after the famous 29th of July — when the four balls of Champlain's arquebuse had 
decided the victory — the savages came down the lake intoxicated with triumph, 
they parceled out at each halt, member by member, a wretched prisoner, so that it 
came to pass that the rude sailor, touched but powerless to soften their barbarism, 
obtained as the special favor that the pitiable victim should be ended with a single 
stroke. It was then the kindness of humanity that he had first to infuse into the soul 
of these beings, human only in form. 

This is the beginning. What shall the end be? Last Saturday at Swanton, 
round about a religious gathering, were ranged a score of Indians from tribes for- 
merly hostile, men with stern features, red skins, eagle-eyed, in strange garments. 
At the moment when the priest raised his hand to bless a commemorative tablet, 
they exchanged glances. It was a curious spectacle. Their faces softened, their 
features relaxed, and their hands with one spontaneous gesture raised the ornament 
of feathers which rested on their brows as the last vestige of their old ferocity. The 
soul is Christian. There remains only the semblance of barbarism. What a road 
to travel to reach these heights! 

For violence, to substitute justice; for rapine, uprightness; for caprice, to substitute 
law; for the brutal instinct of the savage, moral thinking; from the shriveled hand 
which tears, to make the delicate hand which soothes wounds; from the teeth 
which grind and the lips which curse to make the lips which console and pray! 
The task is superhuman. The faith of Champlain did not fear to undertake it. 

Do not ask by what power good is accomplished. The muskets were reserved 
for defense. A new star takes the field. Behold the advance guard, the sharp- 
shooters of the good God — the missionaries. No less than their mother, the Holy 
Church, have they changed the savage life. But they made themselves nomads with 
the savages; they followed their footsteps, they lived their life. They loved them, 
and they civilized them by love. Then came the staff of the army — the holy 
heirarchy, priests and bishops, the parish and the diocese. And then, comparable to 
great stars in the midst of nebulae, here and there, churches! On four wooden 
walls a roof of branches, the semblance of a tower, and raised in the air, shines 
from afar the rallying-sign, the cross. Poor savages, salute! It is mercy, it is 
love, it is the house of God. 



308 State of New York 



We sometimes speak of the soul of things. Do you not beHeve that certain 
places have a soul which is impressed by the events of which they are witness? 

Last evening, at the hour when nature wraps herself in shade and silence, I was 
seated alone and reflecting at the foot of the white cross which extends its great 
arms like a constant call for confidence and love. And it seemed to me that from 
the shadows lightly resting on the tranquil surface of the lake, the Past awakened 
from the repose in which the generations sleep, and showed the way, mournful or 
triumphant, which was the great trail destined by God for mighty things. 

Military glory passes. Under the Hoating folds of their national banners march 
proudly in order of battle the Americans with Macdonough, Arnold, Warner, St. 
Clair, Schuyler, Allen; the English follow with Amherst, Burgoyne; the French, 
in the steps of Levis, Bourlamaque, de Vaudreuil, Montcalm; and the old fort 
thrills. At the passing of the colors, the cannon sounds; to all these heroes Fort 
Sainte Anne gives honor. 

Civilization passes. From this fruitful act, the discovery of this lake, spring 
300 years of progress. And from the farms, the factories, the villages, the cities, 
from all the firesides scattered in New York and Vermont, is raised the joyous 
murmur of wealth, agricultural, industrial, commercial; the word of justice, the 
order of civil life ; decrees of law, of government ; outcome of all this great organiza- 
tion which assures order and peace in the nation. 

Religion passes, and with it an incomparable defile of priests, missionaries, 
religious orders; and the little chapel of Ste. Anne, first shelter of the divine 
Saviour in this land, singing the names dear to the heart of the Christian: Dubois, 
Dolbeau, Dollier de Casson, Marquette, Jogues, Fremin. Behold the noble cohort 
of bishops, from our seigneurs Michaud and de Goesbriand, to the venerable Laval, 
with prelates like the Plessis, Cheverus, Carroll, Rappe, McCloskey, Fitzpatrick. 

The last cortege outlines itself, the first in date, the strangest, the most touching. 
A thrill runs through the trees of our woods. They have recognized their ancient 
savages — Iroquois, Hurons, Abenakis, Algonquins, whose bloody councils their 
profound depths have sheltered. But behold, in the midst of them Champlain 
appears ! And it seemed to me that military glory, civil prosperity, religion, offered 
to him their felicitations on his sublime work. And Champlain points with one hand 
to the cross by the lake, with the other to his converted savages, and his lips slowly 
pronounce these simple words: " The salvation of a soul is worth more than the 
conquest of a world." 



The Champlain Tercentenary 309 

The principal sermon on this occasion was preached by the Rev. P. J. 
Barrett, of St. Mary's Cathedral, Burlington, as follows: 

At Isle La Motte: Sermon of Rev. P. J. Barrett 

" Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise." — Isaiah, 
chap. 51, V. 3. 

As God's chosen seer beheld in prophetic vision Christ's glorious kingdom on 
earth rising majestically and triumphantly above the ruins of the synagogue, wit- 
nessing its peaceful extension from sea to sea, gazing on its brilliant conquests under 
the law of love, and as he saw in it nations and peoples laden with heaven's choicest 
favors, he foretells that Christian joy and gladness shall inundate the souls of the 
faithful and that praise and thanksgiving shall be their grateful offering to God. 

Assembled this morning on a spot hallowed by saintly memories, made sacred by 
altar and shrine, purified by the breath of prayer and sanctified by the mystical out- 
pouring of the Saviour's blood, we cheerfully give vent to the feelings of joy and 
gladness that fill our Christian hearts; while we commemorate the noble and self- 
sacrificing life of that great Christian hero who left his name to be mirrored forever 
in the crystal bosom of our lovely lake, and whose deeds of distinction and valor 
contributed, not a little, to emblazon the first pages of the history of this picturesque 
lake and valley. Our paeans of joy and gladness would be of small worth were 
they not welded in union sublime with our heartfelt thanksgiving and praise to the 
giver of every best and perfect gift. So we gather at the altar of the Spotless Lamb 
and unite with the Pontiff while he offers the infinite and divine thank-offering, the 
purest possible act of thanksgiving, the sweetest note of praise. 

This great tercentenary celebration was ushered in, not with the booming of 
cannon, nor with the mighty roar of artillery, but with the calm, peaceful, heaven- 
like, prayerful. Christian worship of the Sabbath morn. Our first tribute of adoration 
and praise we offered to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who shapes the 
destinies of nations and men, who poises the world on His mighty finger, and in 
whom we live, move, and have our being. 

At this memorable shrine, in beautiful Burlington, in Plattsburgh, yea, all along 
the shores of historic Champlain, the firstlings of our hearts we sacrificed to our God. 
The tremendous mysteries of Calvary pierced the clouds and rose to the Throne of 
the Most High, and the Word of God was preached by learned divines to vast 
congregations of the faithful. Eminently fitting and appropriate it is that the closing 
functions of this festal week should be accentuated and crowned by the highest 
supreme act of homage to God, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And so the words 
of my text will be fulfilled to-day and " joy and gladness shall be found herein, 
thanksgiving, and the voice of praise." 



310 State of New York 



It is the special joy of man's heart to admire where he can. We are readily and 
easily impressed by the great, good, and virtuous. Yes, even w^eak and timid souls, 
though spiritless, are lead to do honor to the virtue, courage and self-sacrifice they 
witness in their fellow men. A great soul, a noble character, will command respect 
and attention the world over, even after he has shuffled off the mortal coil. *' The 
memory of him." says the Scripture, " shall not pass away. His name shall be in 
request from generation to generation. Nations shall declare his wisdom and the 
church shall show forth his praise." Just here then does the illustrious memory of 
Samuel Champlain loom up before our mind's view; it seems to steal in upon us 
like a vision bright from a better world. Let the mists of three hundred years be 
cleared away. How nobly and gracefully our hero stands, a paragon of virtue, 
the fearless explorer, the daring discoverer, the intrepid soldier, the untiring pioneer, 
the successful founder, a man among men, a born leader, a chivalrous crusader. 
We would not, for all the world, detract one minim from the well-earned fame he 
has won, nor take one jewel from the precious niche in which history has placed 
him. Yet, let us remember that there is a glory which never fades; it is a shadow 
however dim, a foretaste however small, of the eternal glory of paradise. It is the 
glory that shines out in the life of the man who is a hero, not only because he has 
conquered kingdoms and subdued nations and peoples, discovered new worlds and 
founded new empires, but because he has learned and has the courage to subdue his 
own rebellious appetites, unruly passions and wayward propensities. It is the man 
who has fought the good fight under the saving banner of the cross, who has bent 
his will and toned his intellect to the sweet yoke of the Saviour; a man of sound, 
unswerving, practical faith. The stars of heaven shine not with so great a lustre 
in the vast field of the firmament as does God's imaged beauty radiate in the soul 
of the true Christian hero. A man may scale the heights of worldly fame and 
deserve well of his country and fellow men for deeds of valor and renown, but let 
the foul breath of habitual vice or sin taint his life and the blot is there, the stain 
is there, that awful cancer that poisons and devours his Christian manhood, and 
saps and corrodes his moral vitality, leaving him the crouching slave of a base 
hypocrisy, a king without a kingdom, a monarch without a throne. Extol, if you 
will, the arm which he raised in defense of his country or to strike the blow for free- 
dom's cause, but conceal his own life from the eyes of your children, shroud it in 
the mantle of charity, let it be hushed into deathlike silence. The mighty hath 
fallen. He lies prostrate. He had a name as if living, but, alas, he is dead. 

The battle of Christian manhood is fought and won by a virtuous life. Love of 
God and fellow men, unswerving obedience to the voice of conscience, undying 
allegiance to holy faith, a living exponent of the highest principles of virtue and 
morahty — behold the life of the man, of our hero, Samuel Champlain. May 



The Champlain Tercentenary 311 



his illustrious memory live long in the hearts of our people, and spur them on to 
purity of life and works of Christian valor for God and country. Under the 
heavenly hues of our glorious flag, the religion of Champlain blooms and flourishes 
hke the fairest flower of Eden. Not only is it tolerated here, but protected and 
honored. Here are recognized its inalienable rights that are born of the justice 
of heaven which nestles so fondly and securely in the magnanimous heart of our 
mighty nation. The priceless value of Christian religion is appreciated here, for 
we citizens of this matchless republic have long since learned that there can be no 
civil society without government, no government without authority, no authority 
without law and no law truly efficacious without religion. We are proud of our 
peerless republic, we glory in the great mainsprings or elements of our national 
greatness, in union, liberty, and prosperity. A union strong and lasting not only 
binding us together by political ties, but especially uniting us in one by the heaven- 
born, mystic tie of true brotherly love. A liberty pure and wholesome like the 
breath of heaven, unsurpassed in the annals of nations. A prosperity whose bright 
star rose gracefully o'er our nation's cradle, and to-day it shines the brightest in the 
firmament of nations, bidding fair to hold its place of honor to the end. This unity 
is made more solid, this liberty more secure, this prosperity more blessed by the 
divinely appointed ministrations of the Christian religion. Virtue and morality must 
ever abound, that peace and order, union, liberty, and prosperity may reign forever. 
For all this let joy and gladness be found herein, thanksgiving, and the voice of 
praise. 

May the fundamental principles of virtue and morality, taught us by our holy 
religion and practiced by Samuel de Champlain, permeate the veins and hearts of 
our God-fearing, God-loving people, that they may cling more firmly than ever to 
the " Rock of Ages " and spurn the arrogant, self-sufficient dastard who would turn 
them from that impregnable rock which in the beginning was cleft from the very 
battlements of heaven by the hand of God for the salvation of the world. 

May this beautiful isle which first welcomed to its embrace the great Champlain, 
and which is blessed forever by the shrine of the good Ste. Anne and the host of 
pilgrims who journey here to pray at this memorable sanctuary, be nature's sweet 
inspiration to the people of Vermont and may our historic Champlain, cradled in the 
lap of our peerless republic, and faithfully guarded by Marcy's and Mansfield's 
towering peaks, teach us more and more of the beauty, power, and love of our 
Father in heaven who has given such precious gifts to men. When the generations 
of another century will have come and gone and the beacons of freedom will still 
be lighting every wave and ripple of this beautiful inland sea, and a grateful people 
will gather on this historic spot to honor the far-famed discoverer of our lake, may 
that far-off day be replete with heaven's fairest blessings, and may the children of 



312 State of New York 

fair Columbia be congregated under the Aegis of true faith, to worship together in 
spirit and in truth. Surely then " will joy and gladness reign therein, thanksgiving, 
and the voice of praise." 

Preceding the sermon and after the arrival of the steamer Ticonderoga 
with the official guests, high mass was celebrated at the shrine, the Rt. 
Rev. Thomas M. A. Burke, bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of 
Albany, officiating. Over sixty members of the clergy were present. 
Among the Catholic societies represented were the Knights of Columbus, 
the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and, 
among others, several local societies of Burlington, Winooski, St. Albans 
and Swanton. Mass was sung by the priests of the diocese, after which 
the sermon was delivered. 

For the literary programme, the throng assembled on the shaded level 
space near the old fort and convenient to the wharf. Governor Prouty 
of Vermont presided and, asking silence, introduced the Rev. John M. 
Thomas, president of Middlebury College, Vermont, who offered the 
following invocation : 

Prayer at the Exercises at Isle La Motte, July 9 ,1909, by Presi- 
dent John M. Thomas of Middlebury College, Middlebury, 
Vt. 

Almighty and eternal God, who in the fullness of time didst grant unto our 
fathers mastery of the western seas and dominion over this new continent, we humbly 
thank Thee for the providential care and gracious leading that has blessed our 
fathers, that has guided our own generation, that has ever kept watch over us in 
love and in kindness. We thank Thee for this good land and large, which Thou 
hast granted to us for our home, the land wherein we have eaten bread without 
scarceness, whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills we have dug wealth. 

We pray for Thy blessing upon our country, upon the President of these United 
States, and all who have authority with him. We pray Thee that thou will grant 
unto our country the old time love of liberty, the old time honor of the right, the 
old time devotion to that which is noble and worthy and pure. Grant unto us tasks 
that try our mettle, work that requires all our courage, and help us to serve the 
ideals of our fathers, and the better ideals of the present, with all fidelity and 
devotion. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 313 



Bless, we beseech Thee, the nations that have participated in the exercises of 
this commemoration. Grant unto each of them fldehty to the ideals of their own 
past and devotion to the religious faith in which their fathers established them. 

We ask Thy blessing to rest upon the Church of God. which is the pillar and 
ground of the truth. We pray Thee, to bless the church of the martyrs of Nero, 
the church of St. Francis of Assisi, the friend of the poor, the church of St. Anthony 
of Padua, the lover of little children, the church of unnumbered heroes and devoted 
sons. Make her ministers in this day aflame with zeal and pious devotion, and may 
she minister as of old to countless thousands the benediction of Galilee and the 
peace that passeth understanding. 

We pray for Thy blessing upon those who minister in plainer forms, after the 
custom of their fathers, the truths of the same God and the gospel of the same 
master. Grant unto them the daring of the Puritan in the truths of freedom and 
the strength and vigor of their own martyrs. May they be faithful to the truth 
committed to them and ever devout and reverent before the new light that in each 
generation breaks fresh and clear from the word of God. Grant unto us all rever- 
ence for truth by whomever spoken and for noble work by whomever done, and 
with increasing veneration for the right may we seek to know the will of God and 
with all our strength perform it so long as Thou shalt give us hght. Through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord, who taught us when we pray to say: 

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. 
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and 
forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but 
deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, 
forever. Amen. 

Governor Prouty — My friends, after the strenuous week which we 
have just passed through, or at least, this being simply the close of the 
week, it is to me at least with a great sense of relief that I come here, 
because the atmosphere is so quiet and restful, and it seems to me that 
that is the attitude which we should have here to-day, because this is the 
close of this celebration of the event which we have been celebrating dur- 
ing the week. To my mind there can be no question but that the spot 
where we are now is the spot that Samuel Champlain first landed in the 
State of Vermont (applause), and I gather that, and my judgment deter- 
mines that, because I believe that it must have been so from force of cir- 
cumstances. But I do not intend to say a word in regard to that. I do 



314 State of New York 

simply say that this is a fitting time and a fitting place for us to close this 
celebration. This is the first spot where he saw the lake. This shall be 
the spot where we shall close the celebration in memory of that event. 
There could be nothing more fitting than that the welcome to this spot 
should be given to you not by myself, but by a son of this island, one 
whose heart comes back to it, although he has been away from it for many 
years, and has become the son of another State. While I know his loyalty 
to that State is unquestioned, while I know that his interests are there, 
and that his efforts in the future will be for her interest, yet I also know 
that his heart comes back to his old home and that he holds it very dear, 
and therefore, I am going to present to you at this time, to welcome you 
to this place, the Hon. Henry W. Hill, Senator from New York. 

Isle La Motte: Address of Welcome by Senator Henry W. Hill 

Senator HenRY W. HilL — Your Excellencies, Representative of the Republic 
of France, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been requested by the officials of this 
township to welcome you, on behalf of its people to this historic point. 

In their name, therefore, I bid you welcome to Isle La Motte, one of the beauti- 
ful islands of this charming lake, first described by Samuel Champlain and then 
famous in Indian legends as the common meeting place of the warring aborigines, 
whereof authentic historic record runneth not to the contrary. 

Its citizens are here to extend their greetings and to join with you in the closing 
exercises of the Tercentenary Celebration. 

This assemblage is an impressive one, comprising as it does, distinguished citizsns 
of three great nations, including the Governors of two American States, the Naval 
Attache of the French Embassy, eminent clergy of the United States and Canada, 
and prominent citizens of this and all the towns surrounding the north end of Lake 
Champlain, as well as a large delegation of representatives of the original tribes 
occupying this valley. The physical and atmospheric conditions are all that can be 
desired and everything has been done by the people of this town to make this one 
of the most enjoyable days of the celebration week. Nature has bountifully 
bestowed its charms upon this scene, which is one of the most picturesque ever 
witnessed on this island, noted for its fine apple orchards, large marble quarries and 
at one time for its flourishing high schools. 

When it was proposed to include Isle La Motte as one of the five places where 
formal exercises were to be held, some question was raised as to the propriety of so 
doing, but in view of its historic significance, it was not to be left out, and people 




Senator Henry W. Hill dt-livcriiiL; a.iciirss ot urlconu- at Is!,- La Alotl.-, \' 



The Champlain Tercentenary 315 



are assembled here from the towns of northeastern New York and from those of 
northwestern Vermont and from the Province of Quebec, all deeply interested in 
this celebration, to participate in the concluding exercises thereof. I cannot well 
refrain from calling your attention to some of the events that have transpired in this 
part of Champlain valley. 

Three hundred years ago, undoubtedly on this very Sandy Point, in an atmo- 
sphere as brilliant as this of to-day and under the stately trees, which we see still 
standing around us, Christianity and Civilization were first introduced into this 
territory in the person of the discoverer of this lake, Samuel Champlain. 

This was but two years after the settlement of Jamestown and eleven years before 
the Pilgrims sailed into Plymouth Bay. Isle La Motte therefore must rank, after 
St. Augustine and Jamestown, as the next place in this country where the white man 
blazed the way for the establishment of civil and religious liberty. (Applause.) 
The story is so thrilling from that time to the present that one need only read it to be 
enthused with its charm. Long before the advent of Champlain, however, this valley 
was the arena of cruel and deadly combats between the savage Iroquois, Algon- 
quins and Hurons in their desperate struggle for supremacy and its control, and this 
Point is described in the Jesuit Relations as the common meeting-place of the Iro- 
quois and Algonquins as late as 1646. From the same authority we learn that 
Father Jogues and other missionaries were here as early as 1642, that mass was 
celebrated here in 1666 and that during the same year Fort Ste. Anne was built 
under the direction of Sieur de La Motte with the aid of his six hundred veterans 
of the Carignan-Salieres regiment stationed on this Point, whose position is strategic, 
projecting as it does into waters forming the boundary between two States and 
also intercepting the highway of trade and travel between the north and the south 
through the lake. 

It was the convenient stopping place for military and naval expeditions as well as 
a port for passenger steamers for many years running through the lake and has been 
visited by civil, military and naval officers of three nations and such distinguished 
personages as Peter Kalm in 1 749 and quite likely by Charles Dickens in 1 842 
and later by President William McKinley and Col. Theodore Roosevelt while 
Vice-President, and many others. Viceroy de Tracy, M. de Chazy, Bishop de 
Laval and others were here at various times in the 1 7th century. Captain John 
Schuyler, on his return from his military expedition to Canada, spent here the night 
of August 24th, 1690. Major Peter Schuyler in his journal describes his trip 
through the lake with his flotilla of canoes manned by 266 whites and Indians in 
the year 1691 and his advance to " Fort La Motte several years deserted " on the 
26th of August, where he remained over night. Captain John Schuyler stopped near 
this fort on his mission to Canada in September, 1 698. This island was included 



316 State of New York 



in the grant by the Governor of Canada, M. de Beauharnols to Sieur Pean, major 
of the town and castle of Quebec, on April 10, 1733. It was also included in 
the French seignory granted to Sieur Bedou, Counsellor in the Superior Council of 
Quebec in 1 752. Canadians were attacked on this Point by the savages in I 694 
or 1695, and French settlers were put to death here in 1 746 and others were taken 
prisoners by the Indians. We know not the extent of the martyrdom nor of the 
savage persecution that has been suffered on this soil which has been made sacred 
by the shedding of human blood. 

In 1775 General Philip Schuyler and Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery 
met here on their way to Quebec, where the brave Montgomery afterward lost his 
hfe. In 1 776 Arnold's fleet lay at anchor off this island, from August 8th to 
August 1 9th, from which he made an official report. 

Over at yonder Point au Fer, within view of this Point, was stationed in 1 775, 
a large body of Americans, and that point was fortified by General Sullivan in 
1 776. It fell into the possession of General Burgoyne in 1777 and was occupied 
by the British until 1 788, five years after the Treaty of Peace. Farther to the 
north may be seen Windmill Point, where was held an International Council in 
1 766, to consider the location of the boundary line between New York and 
Quebec and to hear the arguments of the French claimants to seignories on Lake 
Champlain. The boundary was fixed in I 768. There it was that Arnold on 
August 6, 1 776, encountered Indians in the British service. 

Isle La Motte was settled in I 785 by Ebenezer Hyde, Enoch Hall and William 
Blanchard, and organized into a township in 1 790, a year before Vermont was 
admitted into the Union and while it was an independent republic. This island 
was occupied by the British in the War of 1812; and Captain Pring erected a bat- 
tery of three long eighteen-pounders on the west shore on September 4, 1814, " to 
cover the landing of the supplies for the troops." 

On September 8th, Captain Downie arrived with the rest of his fleet and on Sep- 
tember 1 1 th proceeded to Cumberland Bay, where he met defeat. Commodore 
Macdonough's lieet lay off the north end of this island for several weeks prior to 
his victory in Cumberland Bay, during which time my great-grandfather, Caleb 
Hill, who had been commissioned by the Governor and had raised a company of 
local militia for the defense of the town, was surprised at night in his own house and 
was shot, it is believed, by one of the marines from the fleet. 

Amid such historic associations as these and with the evidences of its early forti- 
fications still visible, the successive generations of its inhabitants have learned some- 
thing of the sacrifices that have been made in the building up of our civil and 
religious institutions, and when the call to duty came, they failed not to respond and 



The Champlain Tercentenary 317 



many of them shed their blood on the fields of battle to preserve this republic from 
dismemberment. 

This town sent to the Civil War more soldiers than it had voters. Hardly a 
family was there that did not have one or more of its members in the Northern 
armies. Among them were some of the " noblest and bravest warriors that ever 
buckled sword." (Applause.) 

When an appeal was made to the voters of this town to make suitable appropria- 
tion for this celebration, they responded by voting a dollar for every inhabitant of 
the town to insure the success of this Tercentenary Celebration. It is well, therefore, 
that we assemble on these historic shores to continue the exercises in commemoration 
of the discovery made by Samuel Champlain, the intrepid navigator, the colonizer, 
the humanitarian, who was the first white man to set foot on this soil and to bring 
into this valley the hght of civilization. It is fitting that we call attention to his 
many virtues as has been done by the prelates and others who have spoken to-day 
and on the other days of this celebration, because his was a mission of peace and of 
good will even to the aborigines of this new country. His was a pure and noble life 
and his virtues worthy of emulation. 

As we near the close of this celebration, I think it proper that I should express 
to those who have given it their intelligent and cordial support the sentiments of the 
members of the two Commissions. The idea of the Tercentenary Celebration was 
first suggested to me in the fall of 1906 by Governor Fletcher D. Proctor of Ver- 
mont, who requested that I present the matter to the Governor and Legislature of 
New York with a view of securing their endorsement of the project and co-operation 
in its execution. This was done and in due course of time the Vermont and the 
New York Commissions were co-operating in friendly accord in formulating plans 
for this Tercentenary Celebration. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on your 
esteemed Governor, George H. Prouty, who has been resourceful in suggestion and 
intelligent in directing such plans and enthusiastic in their execution. No less praise 
should be bestowed upon our esteemed Governor, Charles Evans Hughes, for his 
cordial and intelligent support of the project from its inception. He wields the 
strong arm of the Empire State not only for good government but for a proper 
recognition of the forces and factors in the evolution of our progressive and complex 
civilization. His support has made the celebration a success. 

When Vermont and New York made their appeal to Congress it responded as 
liberally as could be expected in view of the extraordinary demands then being made 
for governmental purposes upon the treasury and we are grateful to the President 
and Congress of the United States for their support and co-operation. 

The pageants presented here and elsewhere by L. O. Armstrong and his company 
of one hundred and fifty descendants of the original tribes, occupying this valley, the 



318 State of New York 



naval exhibition and military parades, the high order of historical addresses and 
poems delivered during these Tercentenary exercises and the distinguished representa- 
tives of the three great nations participating in the celebration, have all contributed 
to make it a success and worthy the dignity of the national and international char- 
acters and events it was designed to commemorate. 

The United States has been represented by the President, the Republic of France 
by its brilliant Ambassador, M. Jusserand, the Kingdom of Great Britain by its 
distinguished Ambassador, Mr. Bryce, the Dominion of Canada by its gifted Post- 
master-General, M. Lemieux, and the Province of Quebec by its talented Premier, 
Sir Lomer Gouin. All these official representatives and many others have contributed 
to the success of this celebration and to all of them the people of this valley are 
under lasting obhgation. Its benefits, however, are not confined to the people of this 
valley, nor to the present generation. They will extend to other peoples and other 
generations. Its contribution to international amity between the United States, 
France and Great Britain, including the Dominion of Canada, is worth all the 
efforts put forth to make it a success. It will also awaken a deeper interest in the 
history of our country and in some measure stimulate the youth of our land to 
emulate the patriotic deeds of the men who heroically represented their respective 
governments in the fierce conflicts that have been waged in this valley for its per- 
manent possession and sovereign control. 

On this beautiful island, set in the blue expanse of softly moving waters, beneath 
an overarching vault of blue sky, dappled here and there by the play of light and 
shade and fleecy drifting clouds, and in the presence of representatives of the 
aboriginal tribes and of the three great powers, that have successively occupied it, 
now happily in friendly accord, altogether forming one of the impressive scenes of 
the celebration, the formal Tercentenary exercises are to conclude to-day. 

To the citizens of this, my native town, to the people of Vermont and New York 
and to all others, who have given the Tercentenary celebration their support, we are 
grateful. We are also grateful to the all-wise Creator, that on this and the other 
days of this week, we have been favored with good weather and that the exercises 
from Ticonderoga on the south to Isle La Motte on the north have been fully car- 
ried out without mishap or accident. (Applause.) 

Governor Prouty — When this celebration was begun, when invita- 
tions were issued to the nations of France and Great Britain, I am glad to 
say that they were responded to most heartily, and the ambassadors of 
those two great nations were delegated to represent their respective gov- 
ernments during this time. But I think I may say that the ambassadors 



The Champlain Tercentenary 319 

themselves possibly may not have felt that the celebration which we were 
to have was of such great national importance, and I am frank to say to 
you now that the ambassador of France sent word to me that it would be 
impossible for him to come to Vermont. That was in the first place. 
Afterwards, he decided that he would put off his trip home and come 
here as a matter of courtesy. From the time those two gentlemen started 
from their homes, we have been trying to convince them, and we did 
convince them, that this was the greatest celebration which has ever taken 
place in this country. (Applause.) Now, you may think that that is a 
little of the New York air, which has been coming over here lately. 
(Laughter.) But I assure you that it is a fact that those two gentlemen 
came to believe that this was the greatest celebration which we have ever 
had. Not the greatest in spectacles, not the greatest in numbers, but in 
the influence which it will exert on this continent. There has never been 
a celebration which was of any greater importance than this, because 
when expressions of friendship are made in a great meeting such as we had 
last night in Burlington, and the President of the United States makes 
such statements as he did in regard to Canada, there can be no question 
about its influence upon the future policies of this country, and therefore 
I say that this celebration is one of the greatest, and I say the greatest 
celebration that has ever taken place. I believe it is a fact that never 
before have the Canadian troops been reviewed by the President of the 
United States. (Applause.) Now, to show you that what I say is true, 
I want to say to you that Ambassador Jusserand was obliged to leave for 
Washington last evening. He went because of his obligation, and not 
because he wanted to, and he said to me before he left, " Mr. Governor, 
I am unwilling that you should hold your celebration on Isle La Motte 
without the uniform of France being represented." (Applause.) " I 
shall delegate my representative to be there and act for me," and it gives 
me the greatest pleasure at this time to introduce to you that representative. 
Commander d'Azy. 



320 State of New York 



Isle La Motte: Remarks of Lieut. d'Azy 

Lieutenant DE Vaisseau Benoist d'Azy — Mr. Governor of Vermont, Mr. 
Governor of Nerv York, Ladies and Gentlemen: I appreciate very highly the 
honor of representing on this marvellous island the Ambassador of the French 
Republic. As a sailor and as a friend of your glorious country I rejoice that I 
have been chosen to bring to your sympathetic company the expression of our 
friendly feelings. Our Ambassador has expressed our feelings better than I can. 
I should have regretted it had I lost the opportunity to bring here for the first time 
after so many years a French military uniform, w^hich this country seems not to be 
willing to forget. (Applause.) I thank you for this opportunity given to me to 
have my dream realized, and w^ish I could better express to you my feelings. I am 
the proper man to have them, and would like to be also the one who might develop 
their intensity. (Applause.) Perhaps some people may believe that the French 
Naval Academy is a school of English speakers. I hope you will be kind enough 
to let them know it is not so (laughter), and that one of the graduates of that 
school made in your honor an audacious experiment and finished his very short and 
maiden speech in French. (Applause.) 

Lieutenant d'Azy then addressed the audience in French. 

J'essayais de vous dire en Anglais, combien j'ai ete emu en mettant le pied sur 
cette lie si belle, ce bouquet de verdure sur une glace d'asur, en mettant le pied sur 
cette terre ou mes aines m'ont precede, joyeux soldats, audacieux ancetres, bravement 
immites encore par nos soldats de France. 

Au Tonkin, a Madagascar, en Afrique, au milieu des sables ardents du desert, le 
petit pioupiou sonne encore sa fanfare joyeuse sans avoir jamais pense a se 
decourager. Qu'importe de tomber si la partie a ete belle? Alors meme qu'elle 
resterait oublie? 

Combien en est il de ceux la donl personne ne saura jamais le sacrifice? 

Aujourd'hui j'assiste a un spectacle plein de consolations pour mon coeur de 
soldat. Des heros oublies depuis plus de cent annees tressaillent a votre voix. On 
me le disait tout a I'heure. L'ombre de Champlain et de ses successeurs plane au 
milieu de nous. 

Vous avez fait la, en venerant le passe I'acte le plus grand que puisse faire un 
peuple qui pense a son avenir, qui veut voir se continuer son glorieux elan. Vos 
braves de demain sauront comment vous honorerez leurs vertus. lis sauront qu'ils 
peuvent verser pour votre honneur et pour votre bonheur jusqu'a la derniere goutte 
de leur sang, et que vous apprecierez leur devouement. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 321 



Vous etes un grand peuple, sage, plein de jugement, enthousiaste. Les charmantes 
fees qui cultivent au milieu de vous tant de delicatesse et que je salue ici devant 
moi ont droit a un hommage qu'il vous sera Ires doux de leur rendre. Parmi ces 
sentiments, la reconnaissance pour le sacrifice et I'abnegation, I'admiration du soldat 
qui fait son devoir est I'un des plus beaux. 

Merci aujourd'hui, merci de votre veneration pour ces pionniers frangais qui se 
sont inscrits dans votre histoire. 

Merci pour le soldat fran^ais qui continue la tradition de ses aines. 

Enfin laissez moi finir par un voeu, par un souhait qui a deja commence a se 
realiser. 

Puissent vos beaux soldats que j'ai admires tant dans I'Etat de Vermont que dans 
I'Etat de N. Y. continuer a etre I'orgueil de votre beau pays. Leurs lauriers 
portent des fruits de paix. Leur honneur est le votre, leur grandeur sera la grandeur 
de votre Star Spangled Banner, que je vois deja dans une aureole de gloire. 

Governor Prouty — Champlain in his narrative has created consider- 
able discussion and made a great deal of trouble. Possibly we may be 
able to clear up some matters here to-day. I believe he says that as he 
passed down the lake he noticed that the tops of the mountains were 
covered with snow. I think that has always troubled the historians, 
because so far as you and I can remember, I hardly think we have ever 
seen the tops of the mountains covered with snow in July. But I think I 
have found out why the climate has changed so much here. We heard 
the other day about the Lady of the Snows from our Governor of New 
York. Nov/, I have found, since this celebration began, that we have 
hot air enough coming over from New York to melt all the snow on the 
mountains. (Laughter.) And I want to introduce to you a gentleman 
to-day who brings with him hot air, but brings with him the good will of 
New York, as I am sure you will find out. 

Governor Hughes at Isle La Motte 

Governor HuGHES — Governor Prouly, Distinguished Guests, Fellow Citizens: 
I cannot tell you how glad I am finally to have reached the spot where Champlain 
made his discovery. (Laughter.) We first visited the field of carnage, then we 
fed the pride of Plattsburgh, and bowed before the pomp of Burlington (laughter), 
and now at last, having fattened these ambitions, we may really celebrate. 
(Laughter and applause.) I am very glad that Champlain chose such a delightful 
22 



322 State of New York 

spot for his discovery. I am not surprised at all to find that the place he first 
landed upon was in Vermont. We are in Vermont (laughter), the Governor of 
Vermont has spoken, and when he speaks New Yorkers in his jurisdiction keep 
silent. (Laughter.) For who shall meet the boasts of Vermont? If you ever 
have a centenary of the claims of this favored State I want to be here. (Laughter 
and applause.) And I will now concede that you claim all that is good, and have 
much of it. I wear upon my bosom, over my heart, the insignia of New York and 
Vermont (applause), and in this bi-partizan capacity, I salute you as fellow citi- 
zens and friends. Whenever you grow cold in your fastnesses and desire to feel 
again the cheering warmth of the Empire State, look westward (laughter) ; let your 
hearts once more glow with fraternity, because you cannot look across at us without 
feeling the warm friendship which goes out to you and inevitably must return. 

It is appropriate that on this last day we should come here to this spot of rare 
beauty, where we can see what Champlain first saw, very nearly. We speak of the 
charm of the discovery. Each one of us must feel that charm as for the first time 
we look upon the glories of this lake. And it is appropriate that we should come to 
a place which has been associated in memory with those characteristics of Cham- 
plain which the addresses of the week have emphasized and we should never forget. 
This has been the scene of preparation for war, both of savages and of civilized 
man. At this place have gathered those who are bent upon conquest and destruc- 
tion. But here pre-eminently was and is the place of worship. Here we return 
after visiting the battlefields, the final result of which was our independence as a 
nation, after witnessing the grateful prosperity of the cities of the two States, to 
learn again the lesson that religious faith must ever be the motive power of humanity, 
and whatever might become of despotism with or without it, it is absolutely essential 
(o democracy. (Applause.) 

Along our different paths we seek the same goal, and in our different ways we 
recognize the supremacy of Providence; and I am glad that at this last hour of the 
celebration we meet in a hallowed place. We remove ourselves to a large degree 
from the scene of conflict; we are prompted through the perspective of the centuries 
to forget differences of creed ; we are led the more to rejoice in modern tolerance and 
in the security of religious liberty, and we come here to a place of consecration to 
appreciate with just estimate the victories of faith, to do honor to Champlain for 
his piety and purity, and to resolve that in our different circumstances we will seek 
to be guided by the same high motives and to make the same loyal submission to the 
Providence of God, in whom we trust. (Applause.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 323 



Governor Prouty — At this time we are about to do something which 
has taken place at every one of the principal celebrations during the 
week, because it does seem extremely fitting that we should in some way 
create somethmg which shall stay with us. which shall become dear to us 
m the way of song, and therefore, at each time, some one has provided a 
song for us appropriate to the occasion, and at this time we are going to 
present such, and I now present to you Professor John Erskine. who will 
deliver a poem appropriate to the occasion. 

CHAMPLAIN 

By John Erskine 
I 
The mind that once aspires shall never rest. 
But mounts eternally from quest to quest. 
Winged forever; still in us they live 
Who to the golden welcome of our West 

Followed their dreams and found their visions true 

Builders of states and realms, themselves tho' few. 

Yet without measure prodigal, who gave 

From their own hearts the seed whence nations grew. 

Lords of the spirit ! Shakespeare's thought divined 
Hamlet and Lear, dark frontiers of the mind; 
And Galileo in his wandering star 
Sweet purpose found and heaven's will defined; 

And leagued with Spain, the son of Italy 
His fabled Eldorado reached; and he 
Who in the new world was the mind of France, 
Found in the wilderness this inland sea. 

II 
Child of his age, to wander and explore. 

The quest in him its kindliest fashion wore 

By simple faith devoutly led. not driven. 
He set God's kingdom on this northern shore. 



324 State of New York 



As a true son his father's form and face 
Inherits, from his long-beheving race 
His spirit drew its strength, and God unchanged 
In his adventure dwelt with antique grace. 

Love of forbidden worship, nor desire 
Of freedom laid in him the wandering fire. 
But love of danger and the will to find — 
The wide-winged soul that can not but aspire. 

They shall have honor till our land shall cease. 
Stern fathers who brought England overseas, 
Restless for conscience, wed to homeless truth: 
He too hath honor who had faith and peace. 

For him each bright adventure and heaven's doom 
Were undivided joy ; he could not roam 
Where life and his own spirit were not one. 
And on this inland sea he was at home. 

Ill 

The sea was in his blood ; the rhythmic urge 
Cradled his race; and from the patient merge 
The mothers of his grandsire and his sire 
Gave back their children to the ocean surge; 

So when the northern forests backward rolled 

And his impatient eyes beheld unfold 

This inland mystery of sea and isle 

And mirrored heaven spreading blue and bold. 

The quickened blood pulsed faster in his breast. 
His calm cheek flushed with joy else uncontest; 
Boy-like he loved adventure, man-like, truth. 
But poet-like loved truth in nature best. 

For him the sea was nature — her divine 
Familiar beauty cheered his heart like wine; 
And where she met him at his wandering's end. 
Here on this lonely isle he set a shrine. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 325 



IV 

Columbus on his midnight deck alone; 
Balboa knee-deep in the Pacific foam; 
In this wild harborage the child of France — 
One deathless moment each hath made his own. 

So to this isle forever he draws near; 
His cautious, lithe canoe still beaches here; 
And from much time and dust and vagueness, he. 
As from a faded portrait stands forth clear. 

Quaint flowing locks, stiff dress of long-gone years. 
Armor uncouth, strange gun and sword he wears. 
O Captain, lonely 'mongst thine Indian crew, 
Knowest thou what dearer freight thy frail craft bears? 

Here thou didst bring, here shalt thou bring for aye, 
The seeking heart, fain of the long highway 
From the worm's troubled yearning leading up 
Where to know all shall light man more than day; 

Here didst thou bring, unguessed, man's loftiest fate. 

Freedom, whereto our blood is consecrate; 

O humble argosy, in thee was brought 

Man's hope in man, whence sprang out mighty state ! 

Vision and freedom — the soul's twofold wing 
TTiat brought thee hither, hither didst thou bring. 
Where yet in grove and cliff they linger — Hark! 
Still round this shore their voices float and sing. 

O resolute strong soul that sought and found, 
First of our race to tread this virgin ground. 
Now the full choir of thrice a hundred years 
The faultless harmony of thine honor sound, 

Live still, and most, in our desire to find 
Unknown horizons — prisoned truth unbind. 
Into the darkness of the secret world 
Bearing the light of thy aspiring mind! 



326 State of New York 

Ours be thy strength, thy simple faith be ours. 
And peace in nature, whence thy spirit's powers. 
And for our hope, thy tender-cherished fame. 
That from this shrine forever buds and flowers. 

Governor ProutY — As has been so well said by the Governor of 
New York, it seems as though this was the place where we should sum 
up all the lessons that have been learned by the celebration, where we 
should take to ourselves its lessons, and it is therefore with a great deal of 
pleasure that I introduce to you the next speaker, because I know of no 
one who is better fitted to do this; I know of no one to whom I would 
delegate such a duty. He is one of our State; I personally have known 
him for many years, and it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you 
now Judge Wendell P. Stafford. 

Address by Hon. Wendell P. Stafford 

Your Excellencies^ Fellow Citizens of the Great Republic, and Dear Friends 
Every One: When I was in Buffalo last winter Senator Henry W. Hill took 
me to see the home of the Historical Society. It stands on the reputed scene of 
ancient Indian gatherings. Over one of its arches runs a legend in the dialect of 
the Senecas: Neh-Ko, Ga-Cis-Dah-Yen-Duk. "Other council-fires were here 
before ours." I was thinking of that legend as I sat here to-day and thinking how 
few were the places over all the earth where some such words might not with truth 
be written, if we could only know all that has gone before for 

All that tread the globe are but a handful to the tribes thai slumber in its bosom. " 

But such thoughts are overpowering. They make the life of man seem insig- 
nificant. Let us turn at once to more congenial themes. 

Sixteen hundred and nine is a year well worth remembering even without the 
reason that has brought us here. That was the year when Kepler gave the world 
the New Astronomy, with the first and second of his three great laws. Gahleo 
was constructing his telescope, with which, a few months later, he discovered the 
satellites of Jupiter. Henry Hudson was sailing up the noble river that was 
ever afterward to bear his name. Two years before, the London Company had 
planted Jamestown. It was only six years from the death of Queen Elizabeth. 
It was only a year to the death of Henry of Navarre. The world was ringing 
with great names and great achievements. The soul of man was putting out its 
wings. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 327 



When Champlain passed the place where we now stand, he was possibly 42 
years old — at the prime of life, in the full flower of his strength. For a dozen 
years he had followed the sea, as his father had done before him. He had been 
born in one of its ports on the shore of France. He had seen Spain and Mexico, 
Panama and the West Indies. He had crossed and recrossed the Atlantic. He had 
cruised and mapped the New England coast, sailed up the broad St. Lawrence, 
and only the year before had laid the foundations of Quebec. Much lay behind 
him but at least as much before. He was yet to make many voyages, to explore 
the Ottawa, to discover two of the Great Lakes — Ontario and Huron — and to 
stand in the place of his King as Governor of Canada. He belonged to that great 
breed of men the age brought forth abundantly — a scholar and a soldier. He 
knew how to act as well as think; he could light as well as pray. He had courage 
to push out into the wilderness, and science to make clear his course, and language 
to record for after times what he had seen and done — a hand firm on the tiller 
of state, a heart devoted to the cross. It would be hard to find a better type of 
the France of his day — able, ambitious, devout — grasping for King and church 
at the best the new world had to offer. 

He had a Frenchman's love of beauty and these lovely islands took his eye. 
We will not doubt to-day that he stopped here. How could he have passed by 
this emerald gem set in the sapphire sea? Low islands he says he saw, beautiful 
with meadows and the noblest trees, ranged over by the fawn and stag and fallow- 
deer. His words are no riddles to us. These are the very islands that he saw, 
and they charm our eyes to-day as they did his 300 years ago. The guides told 
him they had once been inhabited by Indians but the merciless wars that raged 
between the northern and the southern tribes had driven them away. They lay 
upKDn the war path, right in the track of carnage. Caniaderiguarunte the natives 
called it — the gateway. It was indeed the very gate through which the tides of 
ancient Indian battle ebbed and flowed — the fairest spot on earth, almost, and 
yet the most exposed and perilous. The coming of the white man was not the 
coming of peace but rather the coming of more deadly war. Here, where the red 
man's council fires had burned, the white man's fort was built — the first within 
the boundaries that embrace Vermont, and, in the shelter of the fort, the earliest 
Christian chapel. In 1 665 or 1 666 the fort was built by Captain de La Motte 
and the first mass was said. That is the simple story, but think how much it means. 
The pale-face did bring war, war that was to sweep native races to their doom, 
war, even with his own kind, ruthless and insatiable. But he brought with him also 
the holy, blessed truths that will yet overcome all hearts and make all war impos- 
sible. Fort Ste. Anne was burned by the French themselves but five years later. 



328 State of New York 



It was only a halting, hesitating step, a foot thrust out into the wild and then 
withdrawn; yet it marked the beginning of a movement in this valley that was to 
be continued for a century — a determined but unsuccessful effort to plant the 
banner of the fleur de lis in the very heart of New England. Here the two proudest 
nations of the old world were to have their final grapple for the fairest portion of 
the new. As it had been before the white man came so was it still to be — the 
valley of beauty was the highway of war. The basin of the St, Lawrence was 
peopled by the French. The coast of the Atlantic from Cape Breton to the south 
was peopled by their hated rivals. That was enough. Here ran the unpeopled 
passage-way between the two, and for a hundred years none but a fool would have 
built a home beyond the shelter of a fort in all these fertile acres. Swanton had a 
half-breed settlement, perhaps, from 1 700 to 1 760. Over there on Windmill 
Point in Alburgh, in 1731, the French tried hard to keep a foothold, but it was 
soon abandoned. The same year or the next they began their southern Gibraltar 
at Crown Point in Fort St. Frederic; and there and at Chimney Point on the 
eastern shore, a musket-shot away, a httle French village sprang up and flourished 
for 25 or 30 years. But that is all the tale. The rest is the story of fortifications 
built, abandoned or destroyed, rebuilt, retaken or given to the flames — like old 
Fort Carillon that afterwards became Ticonderoga. 

In 1757 the greatest man in England took the reins and in two years the French 
dream of North American dominion had dissolved. William Pitt was master. 
Quebec was taken. Crown Point and Ticonderoga were in English hands, and the 
red horrors of 150 years were to be thenceforward but a thrilling fireside tale. 

The legends of that ghastly time lie all around us; and memories of the later 
wars that swept the lake are thick as leaves of summer and colored like the leaves 
of autumn with glory and romance. We have only to reach out our hands to take 
them. For seven days now the conjurer's wand has been waved over this lovely 
valley calling the dead to life. We have gone through the wicket gate of old Fort 
Ti step for step with Allen. We have seen Arnold, still wearing the rose of his 
loyalty uncankered by the worm of treason. We have fought with him his desperate 
fight at Valcour and leaped with him from his flaming bowsprit at Panton. We 
have watched the British fleet weigh anchor off this shore and move southward to 
its doom at the hands of the invincible Macdonough. Memorial and procession, 
speech and song and pageant have taken up the threads of ancient, half- forgotten 
life, and made the glowing pattern live anew. Again we see the plumed and painted 
savage on the trail, the settler working with his flint-lock in the hollow of his arm, 
the highlander in his plaid, the hireling Hessian in his scarlet coat, the colonist in 
his deer skin or his buff and blue, the French and British regulars who wear upon 



The Champlain Tercentenary 329 



their breasts the trophies of world-famous battles over-sea. And as we look we 
seem to see the gathering of the nations, not now for war but for the beginning of 
a new era under happier skies. 

Three hundred years. It sounds like eternity in the ears of a child. And yet 
four mortal lives, and those not very long, might compass it. There must be many 
living in the world to-day whose great grandfathers could have remembered I 609. 
In the long march of the world's progress it is less than a watch in the night. There 
have been periods of three hundred years that signified nothing in the life of man. 
They came and went like waves upon the beach, leaving no mark behind them. 
But the three hundred years that lie behind us in our thought to-day have filled the 
earth with marvels. Even the physical aspect of the earth has been transformed. 
In 1 609 the Western Hemisphere was scarcely pricked by the explorer, and see 
it now! Africa was a desert and a jungle. It is swarming now with eager nations. 
Asia was a mystery and a dream, a fabulous, enchanted palace whose gold and 
ivory portals western feet were yet to pass. Its doors are open now and east and 
west are mingling. Three centuries ago the Pacific was a sail-less sea. Now on 
its opposing shores the eastern and western worlds stand face to face and the 
struggles and rivalries of the coming age will be upon its bosom. Hawaii, New 
Zealand, Australia, the Central and South American Republics — what were 
these? They were not even names three centuries ago. Even Europe, that has 
sent her millions to all quarters of the globe, has herself, increased enormously in 
numbers. In the I 9th century alone her population more than doubled. 

We seem standing in the presence of a miracle. And yet all these changes are 
as nothing to the changes that have come to pass in the life of man through the 
discoveries of science. Modern science — practical modern science — began with 
Francis Bacon, and he did not publish his " Novum Organum " until 1 620 — less 
than three centuries ago. He taught men to invent by teaching them how to study 
nature, and died in consequence of an experiment. Following the path he pointed 
out and turning their backs on the barren speculation of the ancients, men have 
made existence on this planet a comfort and a joy to millions where it was once a 
gift hardly to be accepted. For it is not merely that we make a thousand miles 
to-day as quickly and more easily than our ancestors could make ten or twenty. 
It is not that we speak with each other across continents, and flash our thought 
and feeling under the deep sea, or make the waves of air bear messages from one 
world to the other. It is not that the wealth of the east is brought to the door of 
the west and the product of the west is poured out upon the threshold of the east. 
This is not the true and solid ground for our rejoicing; but that by all these means 
and many others the life of common men upon the globe has been made something 



330 State of New York 



better. The fat years now are able to help out the lean. India in her famine may 
now be fed by Kansas in her plenty. Earthshaken Sicily may perhaps find hope 
and succor in a battleship that flies the stars and stripes. Multitudes, not here and 
there a solitary man, may feel the broadening influence of travel. All may know 
what all the rest are doing. And that means confidence. It means the end of 
ignorant mistrust and fear and so it means the end of half the cause of war. Once 
all peoples were strangers to each other, and stranger was another name for enemy. 
And so it is that all the rest science has done for men is almost nothing to the 
blessing it has brought about in this, that we are nearer to a world-wide union, to 
that happy time the noble hearted Burns foretold " when man to man the world 
o'er shall brothers be for a'that." 

Then see how the forms of government have changed since Champlain visited this 
island. Feudalism was indeed already doomed. It was singing its swan song by 
the lips of Shakespeare. A new spirit had passed over Europe. It was to take 
generations to throw off the yoke. It is not yet thrown off entirely. But there 
was not a single free government in the world three hundred years ago. There was 
not a single nation that recognized the obvious fact that I have no more right to 
govern you than you have to govern me — that every one who is expected to obey 
the law has a right to be heard in saying what that law shall be. I say there was 
not a single state in the world 300 years ago that had the sense or justice to admit 
that simple truth — not even with respect to its men, to say nothing of its women. 
Now we have advanced so far that many governments do admit in theory or in 
practice that their just powers are derived entirely from the governed. What a 
gain is that! A year before the date we are observing John Milton was born 
in London. His life spans the English Revolution, the highest achievement, the 
crowning glory of the English race. A century later came our own brave struggle 
for independence. And that was not at bottom a struggle between Great Britain 
and the colonies but a grapple between Whig and Tory, a conflict that was going 
on on both sides of the Atlantic. Then came the French Revolution freeing France, 
and Europe, too, from the intolerable tyranny of the past, and destined to open 
the prison door for every people. And the French Revolution was in large part a 
consequence of our own. Look about the world to-day. See how the principles 
of free government, encouraged by their success upon this continent, are shaking 
every throne upon the globe. Look at Russia travailing in the throes of her new 
birth of freedom. See Young Turkey on the shores of the Bosphorus making good 
its claim to constitutional government. See Persia awaking from her revery and 
old China turning from the slumber of four thousand years. We marvel at the 
changes that have come to pass in the appearance of the earth since I 609. We 
marvel still more at the changes in the life of man through the wizardry of science. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 331 



But here is a marvel that cheapens both of these — the coming of the common man 
into his own. The reign of the common people has begun. The fact of deepest 
import in this wonderful era is not Discovery nor Development, no, not even 
Science. It is Democracy — man shaking off the fetters that have bound him in 
all ages and standing erect and free as God would have him stand. Really that 
is all there is. The mere increase of numbers, the mere spreading of mankind 
through distant lands, that is, in itself, no rational ground for our rejoicing. Even 
the revelations of science would not justify our joy if they meant nothing more 
than a new might in the hands of the old masters. What we exult in is the tremen- 
dous fact that now for the first time in the history of the world the whole race 
moves together. Intelligence is so diffused and freedom is so general that every 
addition to knowledge or to power is an addition to a common store and all men 
are made richer. That was not so in other times. There was great learning then 
but it was kept in some close cult, like that of the priests in Egypt. There was 
transcendental art but it was for the few, not for the many. Nero held the supreme 
artist of his age a prisoner for life to decorate his private palace, the famous House 
of Gold. Science was carried far in individual cases. The chemist and artisan 
of the ancient day wrought miracles whose secret modern times have not discovered. 
But their skill and cunning perished with them for it was not, as ours is, the posses- 
sion of the race. The art and learning of the antique world, except, perhaps, the 
learning and the art of Greece, carried the seeds of decay in their own bosom in this 
very fact, that they did not trust the people — they did not give themselves unto the 
world. Our art and science do and so they live and grow and ever will. For the way 
to call the heaven born genius forth is to give the opportunity of culture and 
enlightenment to all. Educate the millions, and while you are making of the 
millions better men and safer citizens, you are making sure of that half dozen 
really master minds among them whose contribution to the common stock of the 
world's power and knowledge will recompense a hundred fold the outlay you have 
lavished upon all. Edison was a poor, uncultivated boy; yet he found his oppor- 
tunity because he lived in a time and land where opportunity is universal. What 
is the chance that he would have come to light in the middle ages? Look at 
Orville and Wilbur Wright leading the world to the dominion of the air. Quiet, 
obscure men — they would have gone unnoticed to their graves if it had not been 
for freedom and the common school. These are the returning harvest of the seed 
our fathers sowed. Trust the people, make education common as the street, and 
you shall reap your reward in the steamboat and the telegraph, in Emersons and 
Lincolns, in Marconis and St. Gaudens. 

We cannot claim that in the realm of art, letters and philosophy we have out- 
stripped the past. Lest we should wax too proud it may be well to acknowledge here 



332 Si All. 0\ NlW ^OKK 



ftncl n«)\v ihni \\\r ninstnplrcru of porlvy. pnintinH nm\ «culplurr. \\\c tlrrpcul hrood- 
inKS o( ihc human spiril ovn the rulillrs ol tIrMiuy. air still l<» Itr l.mkril (or hack 
ol l(i()'). Hul ll^rir never wan hrioir m> wi«lc a knowlctlnr <»l \\\c \\\\[\\. Muh 
capacity for the appiocialion o{ \\\c hcaiitiful in \\\c woiKl at \.\\\.\c. m» vast and 
fit an aiulirncr for tlir p«)ct an»l \\\c srrr. And if ihr jModiicI ol the last tlurr 
contuiic!* lias not put the past to sKamr it has hrrn noMc ami inspiriuH. ami lillctl 
lo ovrrllowiuK with n love of man that is worth all the srllish splomlors ol the past. 
No great writer any longer sneers, as even Shakespeare sometimes iliil. al the man 
helow him. There is no longer any poetry in that. The worKl poem heats the 
title of the Son of Man. 

And so we have come hack in the rnil to the point ih.vl we set out (lom. to the 
chapel an«l the mass. I'or il is not clearer to o\\\ eyes that sununer lollows sprn»« 
than that the henellcenl changes we have traced to day with gratihide and joy have 
f»>llowed (lom ihe teachings of the Man of C'.alilee. It was 1 le who taught us 
the tlivimlv <>l n> \n all the rest Hows from that (he unsuspected majeMy ol 
lunuan nattne. That is why man may not he enslaved. That is why he shall not 
he lell forever in ignorance or poverty or shame. We come hack at last, through 
the things that are ever changing, [o the things thai never change. It is as though 
we had heen sitting here in the shallow of the old foit and listening to ihe chatiting 
of the priests in that fust C'hristian service ami ihrn there had hiokcu in upon 
the music the ratlle of muskets, the yell of the s.w.tgc. the scream o{ the victim, 
the shouting ol :><aiurn. the ihiin.lri «>! c.mnon. ihc noise of the tempest, the pipes 
of the clansmen, the SJ>ng oi the jMoneer. the long, leverherating whistle of the 
steamer, the runihle and roar of the approaching train, the hum ol iiulustry throjigh 
all the valley, the hahel of mullilutles that come and go - - and then again silence 
hati I alien, and we hear*! the sweet atul solemn chant still going on. and caught 
the words. " Deposuit p«>tentes ile setle et exaltavit humiles." Ah yes! He Juts 
put down the mighty from their seat and has exalleil them ol low degree. After 
all. that is the o\\\\ lealily the lesl is all a tlieam. (Piolongetl applause.) 

GovonuM Plum 1 V riuMo is owe \\\\u^\ 1 fro! it mv iluty ami luv great 
ploasinr to ilo, aiul that is lo oxloiul tlu' lh.\iiks ol tlu- \ jMMU)ut State Com- 
mission .\iul »^f the St.»tf to lhos(> \vlu> h.ive workotl so l.vithiully hero lo 
help us in this crlrluation aiul lo proviilo ihoso things >vhuh arr sproaJ 
holorr U5. antl 1 wish lo thank tliat C'onunission for all ihrv havo ilono and 
done so wcW. Wc couKl not havo \\m\ this gioal pleasure \vitlu>ut it, 
ihoroforo it is thrir iluo, ami I givr il llu in with iho grralosl ploasiuc ui 
the worlil. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 333 

Following the ceremonies at the shrine, the greater part of the assem- 
blage headed by a band and escorted by Company " M," Vermont 
Militia and Cavalry, marched through the woods up a neighboring slope 
for the dedication of the boulder monument with bronze tablet bearing 
the following inscription: 

IN HONOR OF THE FIRST WHITE MEN WHO FORTIFIED THIS ISLAND IN 1666 

IN MEMORY OF THE SACRIFICES AND VALOR OF 

COLONEL SETH WARNER AND CAPTAIN REMEMBER BAKER 

EMINENT GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS AND PATRIOTS 

AND 

TO COMMEMORATE THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL MONTGOMERY 

WHO ENCAMPED NEAR THIS SPOT WITH 1200 MEN IN 1775 

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE 

PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES OF VERMONT WOMEN 

1909. 

Mrs. Edward Curtis Smith of St. Albans presided over the 
exercises. The St. Albans Choral Union sang " To Thee, Oh, Country," 
with excellent effect, and Mrs. F. Stewart Stranahan, State Regent of 
the Vermont Colonial Dames, delivered the address of welcome. The 
presentation to the State was made by Mrs. Clayton N. North of Shore- 
ham, State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The 
monument was unveiled by Miss Dorothea Smith, daughter of ex-Gov- 
ernor Smith of Vermont, and by Master Harry Hill, son of Mr. Arthur 
H. Hill of Isle La Motte. Governor Prouty formally received the 
tablet in behalf of Vermont and President John M. Thomas, D.D., 
delivered the following dedicatory address: 

In memory of the first white man who founded Christian homes upon this fair 
island, and in this ancient pathway of war sought to establish homes of peace. 

And in honor of Seth Warner and Remember Baker, intrepid freemen of the 
Green Mountains, lovers of liberty for their children, for whose freedom they gave 
their lives, who here encamped while on perilous service for their country. 

And in commemoration of General Montgomery and his valiant force of 1280 
American patriots. 

We place this boulder as a token of our gratitude for their mighty deeds and 
of our veneration for their self-annulling devotion. 

In the name of our fathers' God we dedicate it to the holy cause of patriotism. 
May it testify to the men of the present and to the generations following that love 
of country is the glory of manhood, and the measure of human worth. 



334 State of New York 



We dedicate it also to the sentiment of pious veneration for all brave men of 
the past. May all strong men who look upon it be made yet stronger in courage 
and in faith, to live for their country, not for themselves. May all womanly 
women who learn of this pious act of their patriotic sisters gain more secure assur- 
ance of woman's participation in the sacrifices of war and in the greater heroisms 
of peace, and acquire thereby the dignity that adds grace to beauty, and the far 
reach of vision that lends nobihty to affection's charm. May the little children 
who spell out the letters inscribed upon it learn the valor of their sires, and take 
to their tender hearts reverence for the courage that regards neither peril nor labor 
in the service of the right. 

May it be spared the desecration of the vandal, and beneath God's open sky, 
withstanding frost and storm, abide the centuries through, to testify that the memory 
of the brave shall not perish while yonder lake sparkles in the sun, and that the 
beautiful flag of freedom shall float over its waters so long as the great granite 
peaks shall welcome the mornings of the bettering days of God. 

At the close of the exercises *' The Star Spangled Banner *' was sung 
with great enthusiasm, the entire assemblage joining in the chorus. 

A feature of the exercises was the presence of Mrs. E. S. Parker of 
St. Johns, Quebec, a great-granddaughter of Seth Warner. This lady 
occupied a seat of honor and placed a memorial wreath on the monument. 

Numerous other events at various places in the Champlain Valley may 
appropriately have brief mention in connection with this report. The 
final presentation of the Indian pageants occurred at Rouse's Point on 
the evening of the 9th inst. On Friday and Saturday, at several of the 
smaller towns, virtually holiday was observed with some celebration 
features. In Vermont, the towns of Swanton, St. Albans and Vergennes 
had carried out patriotic programmes of more than ordinary interest. At 
the last named town, exercises were held on July 5th at Fort Cassin on 
the historic Otter Creek. In Burlington, on Saturday, the 1 0th inst., at 
the University of Vermont, was unveiled a tablet to the memory of sol- 
diers of the War of 1812, the tablet being placed on a building which 
was used as barracks for troops in that war. It was presented to the 
University of Vermont by Mrs. C. S. F. Jenne of Brattleboro, State 
President of the Society of the Daughters of 1812, in behalf of which 
organization the presentation was made. The formal acceptance was by 



The Champlain Tercentenary 335 

President M. H. Buckham of the University, followed by an address, 
entitled " 1812," by Major-General O. O. Howard, U. S. A., retired. 

The exercises at Isle La Motte concluded the official programme of the 
week's celebration. The visitors dispersed. The flotilla of boats, large 
and small, bore them away up the lake on their way to their several 
destinations. But there remained, when every visible sign of festivity had 
been removed, a very substantial new possession for the dwellers of the 
valley. Old and young, all had come into a keener realization of the 
significance of the history of their home region and of its bearing upon 
present day problems and their relations as neighbors and citizens with 
those who pay allegiance to other flags. Herein is gathered the chief fruit 
of the whole undertaking, and those who labored to arrange the celebra- 
tion and to carry it through, find their chief satisfaction in the conviction 
that this week of tercentenary observances did something to strengthen the 
bonds of friendship long existing between the nations which have shared 
in making the history of the Champlain valley. 

In the official report of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commis- 
sion of Vermont will be found a full account of all the Tercentenary 
Exercises held in Vermont as well as a resume of the work of that 
Commission. 

The cordial relations existing between the members of that Commis- 
sion and the members of the New York Commission, and the general 
disposition of the Commissioners of both States to plan and carry forward 
a bi-State programme of exercises of a very high order, contributed in 
no small degree to the success of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary, 
which has come to be regarded as one of the noted American commemo- 
rative celebrations. 

The Tercentenary drew to that picturesque and charming lake the 
peoples of many lands and made an Impression on all that will endure 
and tend to draw visitors thereto for years to come. Its beauties have 
been celebrated in song and its tragic history unfolded in prose and 
pageant to the delight of thousands, who look to its shimmering waters, 
its blue skies and its overhanging mountains as one of America's most 



336 State of New York 

alluring attractions. With the completion of the enlarged Champlain 
canal and the establishment of waterway communication with the his- 
toric Hudson, it may again become an important highway for commerce 
as well as one of the pleasure resorts of the people of this and other 
States. 

The stately Green mountains in the east, " robed in transcendent 
light," and the rugged Adirondacks in the west, with their towering and 
occasionally snow-capped peaks, the two ranges separated by the blue 
waters of Lake Champlain with all the play of light and shade and 
fleecy drifting clouds, made an impression on Champlain as on others 
ever since, which can not fail to awaken a love for the beautiful and the 
sublime in nature. 

Hudson-Fulton Celebration 

The members of this Commission were among the invited guests of the Hudson- 
Fulton Commission and witnessed some of the most impressive scenes of that 
memorable celebration, extending in time from September 25th to October 9th. 
1 909, and in distance along the entire navigable waters of the Hudson River. 
The preparation and execution of the elaborate plans of that celebration, which 
was participated in by the invited guests and official representatives of several 
States and many nations, were under the supervision of General Stewart L. Wood- 
ford, President; Herman Ridder, First Vice-President; Isaac N. Seligman, 
Treasurer, and Colonel Henry W. Sackett, Secretary, constituting the executive 
officers of the Hudson-Fulton Commission, ably assisted, however, by a large board 
of trustees and several hundred members, representing various organizations and all 
the political divisions of the State. The historical phases and wide scope of that 
celebration are well presented in the Official Report of the Hudson-Fulton Com- 
mission, which was prepared by Edward Hagaman Hall, L. H. D., Assistant 
Secretary, and fills two large volumes, including illustrations of many subjects, 
exhibited during that Tercentenary. The thorough preparation for, the orderly 
prosecution and successful consummation of the Champlain and Hudson-Fulton 
celebrations in close succession, involving as they did large expenditures of money 
as well as long-continued efforts on the part of the respective commissioners in 
charge, evince a deep and an abiding popular interest in the development of our 
civil and religious institutions and in the crucial events which have contributed to 
the upbuilding of the Empire State and of this " noble and puissant " nation. 



VIII. THE PROPOSED CHAMPLAIN MEMORIAL 

337 



23 



VIII. THE PROPOSED CHAMPLAIN MEMORIAL 

AT THE FIRST MEETING of the Commission, August 13, 1908, on 
motion of Senator Hill, a committee was appointed to report on 
the advisability of soliciting funds for a monument to Samuel 
Champlain, to be erected at some point in the Champlain Valley. That 
committee consisted of Messrs. John B. Riley, John H. Booth, Howland 
Pell, Louis C. Lafontaine, James A. Foley and James J. Frawley. 

At the second meeting of the Commission, held at the Hotel Belmont*. 
New York city, September 30, 1908, Mr. Riley offered the following 
resolution, which was adopted : 

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to investigate the question of 
the location and cost of a monument to Champlain and report at a subsequent 
meeting of the Commission and that such committee confer with the Vermont Com- 
mission in relation to such monument. 

The chairman appointed as members of such committee Messrs. Lafon- 
taine, Pell, Frawley, Riley and Shea. 

There were early brought before this committee or before the Com- 
mission as a whole, claims and arguments in behalf of various sites, each 
urged as the most desirable for the proposed memorial. To no phase of 
its work has the Commission given more careful consideration than to this, 
but it was found advisable to defer action in regard to it as much as pos- 
sible until after the celebration had been accomplished. 

At an early meeting. Secretary Hill submitted to the consideration of 
the Commission a careful review of the sites in the valley, which he 
thought ought to be considered in connection with the proposed memorial. 
He dwelt upon the historic associations of Crown Point, and also of 
Ticonderoga, where, he said, an heroic statue of Ethan Allen should ulti- 
mately be erected, and expressed his conviction that this would be done 
" though perhaps not in our age and generation." He reviewed the 
events of the War of 1812, which made the vicinity of Plattsburgh 

339 



340 State of New York 

memorable, and suggested that Cumberland Head should be marked 
with an heroic statue of Macdonough. Eliminating various other points 
of minor claims, he dwelt upon the three centuries of historic events cen- 
tering at Isle La Motte and reached the conclusion that that island was 
the logical site for the memorial to Champlain. In this connection, he 
called attention to the fact that such a memorial might be erected thereon 
on property already owned by the Federal Government. 

At a joint meeting of the two Commissions, held in Burlington, May 
3 1 st, it was stated that the Vermont Commission had adopted a resolution 
favoring the selection of Isle La Motte. The representatives of no less 
than thirty French societies had written to endorse the selection of that 
island, and there were given various pledges of individual contributions 
should the Champlain memorial be placed on that island. Much stress 
was laid on the special interest in the project aroused among the French 
population. 

While the claims of the points mentioned were under consideration, the 
advocates of other places were by no means inactive. The advantages 
of Bluff Point, three miles south of Plattsburgh, were vigorously urged 
upon the attention of the Commission. In September, 1 909, the Commis- 
sion received various data regarding that point. From Messrs Dillon, 
McLellan & Beadel, architects of New York city, a map of Bluff Point 
was received, its object being to show the natural advantages of the place 
and the engineering problems in placing a monument there. Two sites 
at Bluff Point were considered. The abrupt cliffs, approximately forty 
feet high, formed a good base on which to rear a high monument. Of the 
two sites designated by the architects, respectively A and B, they thought 
that B, being the more southern of the two, was the more desirable. The 
matter of docks, approaches, etc., was carefully set out in regard to these 
sites. The distance from the station at Bluff Point to site A was approxi- 
mately seven thousand feet, of which four thousand feet would be new 
road. The distance from the station to site B was about twenty-four 
hundred feet, of which all but eight hundred feet was already constructed. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 341 

The natural advantages of both of these sites were dwelt upon in this 
report of the architects. 

At about this state of deliberations. Chairman Knapp and Commis- 
sioner Witherbee called at the Executive Chamber in Albany and con- 
ferred regarding the proposed memorial with Governor Hughes. The 
Governor suggested that the Commission request State Architect Franklin 
B. Ware to report on the matter. Mr. Ware ultimately made a report 
on the Bluff Point site and also on Split Rock as a site. He also reported 
on means for securing competition in preparing plans for a monument. 

At a meeting held on September 3, 1 909, Commissioner Pell presented 
the claims of Ticonderoga as the site for the proposed memorial, stating 
that Mr. David Williams of that place offered an acre of land on Mt. 
Defiance, to be considered by the Commission as a site for the memorial. 
Commissioner Riley suggested that a better place in the vicinity of 
Ticonderoga would be directly east of the old fort buildings, on the point 
south of the Pell mansion. 

At this meeting the following gentlemen of Ticonderoga were given a 
hearing: Messrs. David Williams, D. C. Bascom, J. W. Wren, W. G. 
Wiley, Robert Hanna, I. C. Newton, M. V. Drake, Dr. M. H. Turner, 
James A. Mullany, Dr. W. A. E. Cummings, L. R. Meads, W. C. 
Tift. P. J. Finn, F. B. Wickes, M. Y. Ferris, John Gunning. C. A. 
Stevens and W. W. Richards. 

Several of these gentlemen addressed the Commission, urging the 
advantages of Mt. Defiance for the object in view. Mr. David Williams 
stated his readiness to donate an acre of land thereon for the monument 
site should the Commission decide to select it. The matters of accessi- 
bility, road construction, etc., were discussed at length. Special attention 
was called to the fact that Mt. Defiance was over a thousand feet high 
and that a memorial on its summit could be seen not only from very many 
points in the Champlain Valley, but from steamers on Lake George and 
from other distant points. Should the proposed memorial take the form 
of a lighthouse, it was argued that its light could be seen by a quarter of 
the population of the State of Vermont. The discussion further brought 



342 State of New York 

out the statement that in the summer time from eight hundred to a thousand 
people visited Ticonderoga daily by the trains, besides the people who 
came by steamboat, and that six or seven thousand people on occasions 
frequently came down through Lake George to Ticonderoga. 

The Commissioners thanked the advocates of this site, but reserved 
decision. 

In conference later, on this same date, various other sites were con- 
sidered, among them Split Rock, Crown Point, Juniper Island, Bluff 
Point and Isle La Motte. After an informal ballot to discover the prefer- 
ence of the Commission, a formal vote was taken, resulting in six votes 
for Bluff Point and five votes for Isle La Motte, 

On motion of Mr. Hill, seconded by Mr. Witherbee, the vote in favor 
of Bluff Point was made unanimous. 

A motion was also adopted that the selection of a site by the Commis- 
sion be made contingent upon the owners of such a site donating the use 
of such amount of land as might be deemed necessary by the Commis- 
sion with the right of ingress and egress to and from the same connecting 
with a public highway and with the right to construct and use a dock on 
the water front thereof. 

At a meeting on September 27th, 1909, Commissioner Booth moved 
" that the Monument Committee be authorized to do what in its judg- 
ment is deemed best to get plans as to monument, with power to make 
such arrangements as it considered best and report to the Commission its 
conditions thereon." The final decision of the committee was held in 
abeyance throughout the winter of 1909-10. 

At a meeting in Albany, April 28, 1910, the matter of site was again 
thoroughly discussed, but further action deferred until a joint conference 
could be held with the Vermont Commission. 

At a meeting of the Commission held at Albany, May 13, 1910, Mr. 
Crockett of the Vermont Commission was received and given a hearing. 
He stated that the Vermont Commission had taken no definite action as 
to site; a meeting had been held at which several sites were considered. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 343 

particularly Rock Dunder ; the Vermont Commission was to meet on the 
following day. May 14, at Burlington. 

After Mr. Crockett had retired, the New York Commission, on 
motion of Mr. Witherbee, voted to reconsider the action of September 3, 
1909, whereby Bluff Point had been selected. The secretary was 
directed to notify the Vermont Commission of this action and to invite 
them to unite with the New York Commission in a joint conference for 
further consideration of the matter. 

The Vermont Commission on learning of this action adopted the fol- 
lowing : 

Resolved, In view of the fact that the New York Tercentenary Commission 
has reconsidered its action locating a Champlain Memorial at Bluff Point, New 
York, and has expressed its willingness to unite with the Vermont Commission in 
erecting a joint memorial, that the Vermont Commission hereby votes to unite with 
the New York Commission in erecting a joint memorial at Crown Point, N. Y., 
provided that Commission agrees thereto. 

This action was duly communicated to the New York Commission, 
which, at a meeting held June 13, 1910, adopted the following: 

Resolved, That the New York Commission appropriate thirty-five thousand 
dollars toward a joint memorial, to be erected at Crown Point. 

It was also resolved to accept the offer contained in the resolution of the 
Vermont Commission as above given. 

On the decisive vote the New York Commission stands recorded as 
follows: In favor of Bluff Point, one; Isle La Motte, four; Crown Point, 
six. The Commission also went on record as favoring the erection of a 
separate memorial at Bluff Point. 

The above action by the New York State Commission was taken with 
the understanding that the Vermont Commission was to contribute the 
balance of the money necessary for the erection of the memorial. The 
Committee on Memorial of the New York Commission was discharged 
and the chairman announced as a new committee to act on the erection of 
the memorial at Crown Point, the following: Messrs. Witherbee, Pell 
and Lafontaine. 



344 State of New York 

He also announced the following as a committee to act upon the 
separate memorial, to be erected at Bluff Point or Plattsburgh: Messrs. 
Riley, Booth, Foley and Weaver. 

Prior to the action above recorded, Messrs. Witherbee, Sherman & 
Co. of Port Henry, owners of the site of the ancient forts at Crown Point, 
had offered to give said site, containing the ruins, to the State of New 
York. The act of acceptance by the State became a law April 22, 191 0, 
and is as follows : 

CHAPTER 151, LAWS OF 1910 

An Act to Accept a Deed of Gift and an Assignment of Lease in 
Perpetuity, From the Corporation of Witherbee, Sherman and 
Company to the People of the State of New York, of Land in 
the Town of Crown Point, Essex County, New York, Embracing 
THE Sites of Fort Saint Frederick and Fort Amherst. 

Became a law April 22, 1910, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three- fifths being 
present. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, 
do enact as follows: 

Section I . The people of the state of New York hereby accept title to the lands 
mentioned in the deed of gift or conveyance, and in the assignment of lease in 
perpetuity, now in possession of the governor of this state, which deed and assign- 
ment were executed the twenty-fifth day of March, nineteen hundred and ten, by 
the corporation of Witherbee, Sherman and Company to the people of the state of 
New York, describing certain lands situated in the town of Crown Point, Essex 
county, in this state, which lands are more fully identified and described in said 
deed and assignment. The title to such lands is accepted upon the terms and con- 
ditions stated in said deed and in said assignment of lease, namely, that the land 
therein described shall be forever dedicated to the purpose of a public park or 
reservation, the people of the state of New York agreeing to protect the fort ruins 
on said land from spoliation and further disintegration to the end that they may be 
preserved for all time, so far as may be. The title to the lands conveyed by said 
deed is accepted, subject to a reservation as to mines and minerals, referred to in 
said deed, subject to outstanding easements, if any, in public highways crossing said 
premises, as the same are now laid out and used, and subject to a certain lease in 



The Champlain Tercentenary 345 

writing dated April twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and two, between Witherbee, 
Sherman and Company, lessor, and the Port Henry Steam Ferry Company, lessee, 
for the period of twenty years from the date of said lease, affecting a small parcel 
of land on the lake front, together with a right of way from a certain dock on the 
land so leased, to the public highway; all rents under said lease being reserved by 
said deed to the grantor in said deed. The title to the lands described in the lease 
in perpetuity, is accepted subject to the covenants and reservations contained in said 
lease. 

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 

Numerous suggestions reached the Commission, as to the form the pro- 
posed memorial should take. Commissioner Lafontaine urged the pro- 
priety of erecting a lighthouse in connection with a heroic statue of Cham- 
plain. This idea came to him through reading the explorer's own account 
of his numerous and perilous voyages and expeditions, and the Commis- 
sioner felt that a lighthouse *' would be a fitting memorial emblem for such 
an intrepid navigator, while its light would symbolize the greater light of 
Christian civilization which he brought into the beautiful valley that bears 
his great name." Commissioner Lafontaine was the first to bring this 
form of memorial to the consideration of the New York and Vermont 
Commissions ; both of which received it with favor. The first meeting of 
the Committee on Crown Point Memorial was held at Mr. Pell's " Block 
House," Fort Ticonderoga, N. Y., October 4, 191 0. There were present 
Commissioners Witherbee, Lafontaine and Pell. It was decided to 
recommend to the Vermont Committee that the competition for the 
memorial be limited to three competing architects, viz.: Mr. McLellan 
and Mr. Bossom of New York and Mr. Austin of Vermont, and that 
the competition be placed in charge of Professor A. D. F. Hamlin, of 
Columbia University. 

At a meeting of the Vermont Committee held on the steamboat l^er- 
mont the same date, the above resolution was approved. 

A joint meeting of the Committee of New York and Vermont Com- 
missions was held in Havemeyer Hall, Columbia University, January 
28, 1911. Present — Commissioners Pell and Lafontaine of New 
York; President Thomas, Messrs. Crockett, Jarvis and Hays of Ver- 



346 State of New York 

mont. President Thomas was chosen chairman and Mr. Hays acted as 
secretary. 

Three designs were submitted by the architects and considered. The 
joint committee finally unanimously selected the design prepared by Hugh 
McLellan of the firm of Dillon, McLellan and Beadel, architects of 
New York city, which is in the form of a lighthouse and described by 
them as follows: 

Description of the Design for the Champlain Tercentenary 
Memorial Light-House at Crown Point, N. Y. 

(By the Architects) 

The problem presented was that of designing a monumental light-house large 
enough in mass to be imposing, and of bold outline, distinguishable, when seen from 
a distance, from the ordinary light-house, without changing the height (50 feet 
from the ground to lantern platform) of the present structure; sufficiently rugged 
in character for the landscape at Crown Point, without being crude or lacking in 
distinction. 

The ruins of the French and English forts in the neighborhood might suggest 
that the monument should have a military character, but the forts are too far away 
to make it necessary for the monument to conform to them in style, and, as they 
were built long after Champlain's time (Fort Frederic in 1731 and Fort Amherst 
in 1759), there is no other reason for doing so; especially as a military memorial 
would not be appropriate to Champlain's character and to the achievements on which 
his fame rests. Champlain was essentially a navigator and an explorer; zealous 
in the service of the King of France and of his religion, his chief desire being the 
colonization of the country and the establishment of the Christian religion among 
the Indians. In fact, his battle with the Iroquois led to their alliance with the 
British against the French and aided greatly in the ultimate loss of Canada to the 
French. 

The best solution of the problem seemed to lie in adopting as a basis the style 
of architecture prevailing in France at the time of Champlain, as employed in parts 
of Fontainebleau and other royal hunting lodges, situated in comparatively wild 
places, using a robust order and bold, restrained ornament, forming a monumental 
decoration enclosing the stair shaft. 

The free standing columns surrounding the central shaft give width of outline 
without the heavy effect of a solid mass of the same diameter, and provide proper 




Design (or Tercentenary Memorial to Samuel Charaplain at Crown Point 



The Champlain Tercentenary 347 



space for stairs. TTie vertical lines of light and shade increase the apparent height 
of the tower, and render its special monumental character unmistakable at a dis- 
tance. The granite columns and the bronze statue of Champlain are raised on a 
massive granite base so that they will be seen above the trees. The lantern and 
lantern platform are in accordance with the regulations of the light-house board, 
but a visitors' gallery, separate from the lantern platform, gives, with the cornice 
and parapet, a distinctive outline to the whole top. The ornament is restrained, 
the garlands of the frieze binding the top together while the pendants and balls 
carry up the vertical line of the columns and give a greater effect of height. 

The monument has been faced towards the east, for in that direction the slope 
of the land is steepest, the water and the line of water travel are nearest, and two 
knolls frame in the approach from the water. This steepness and shortness of 
approach give a maximum effect of height, and a greater monumental appearance 
than from any other direction. In this position the statue will cut out well against 
the sky when seen from up and down the lake, while it composes well with the 
monument when seen from the front, where the point of view is nearest. 

The statue of Champlain is flanked by seated figures of an Indian and of a 
vo^ageur or coureur-de-bois. Under it, in stone, is a conventionalized canoe-prow, 
laden with typical products of the region — the whole group being emblematical 
of the condition that prevailed there in Champlain's time. Below this is a bronze 
tablet bearing appropriate inscriptions and the names of the commissioners. Shields 
about the base bear the arms of Champlain, France, the United States, New York, 
Vermont, etc. 

As especial emphasis should be laid upon the fact that the monument is erected 
jointly by the states of New York and Vermont, pyramidal memorials have been 
placed at either side. These bear the arms of the states and tablets and inscriptions. 

A small museum for historic relics, which would also serve as a reception room 
for visitors, and would add to the attractiveness of the monument, could be estab- 
lished in connection with the keeper's house. 

At the meeting of the Commission held at Albany, February 8, 1911, 
Commissioner Pell reported that Congressman Foster had introduced a 
bill in the House of Representatives authorizing the Lake Champlain 
Tercentenary Commissions of New York and Vermont to erect a 
memorial to commemorate the discovery of Lake Champlain upon 
Crown Point Light-House Reservation, New York, and that such bill 
passed the House of Representatives on February 7, 1911, and there- 



348 State of New York 

after the Senate, and was approved by the President. Commissioner 
Pell submitted a copy of such bill as follows: 

A Bill to Authorize the Erection Upon the Crown Point Light- 
house Reservation, New York, of a Memorial to Commemorate 
THE Discovery of Lake Champlain. 

Be it enacted b\) the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled. That the commissions which were 
appointed by the States of Vermont and New York to have charge of the recent 
celebration commemorating the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake 
Champlain by Samuel de Champlain, and which have been authorized by said 
States to build a suitable memorial commemorating said discovery, are hereby granted 
permission to erect such memorial upon the Crown Point Lighthouse Reservation, 
New York: Provided, That before any actual work of construction shall be 
begun upon the structure the plans and specifications therefor, both preliminary and 
detailed, shall be submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor for his 
approval, and after they have been approved by him they shall not be deviated 
from without his prior approval. 

Sec. 2. That upon the completion of the structure in accordance with the 
provisions of this Act the Secretary of Commerce and Labor is hereby authorized 
and directed to accept the same, free of expense, for and in behalf of the United 
States. 

Sec. 3. That upon the acceptance of the structure by the United States the 
same shall be maintained as an aid to navigation at the expense of the appropriations 
for maintenance of the Lighthouse Service. 

Thereupon, the action of the committee in selecting the Hugh Mc- 
Lellan design for the Crown Point memorial was approved, and that 
committee was authorized to enter into joint contract with the Vermont 
Commission for its erection at an expense to the New York Commission 
not exceeding $35,000, it being understood that the Vermont Commis- 
sion was to contribute $15,000 towards the cost thereof, which is not to 
exceed, altogether, including architect's fees, the sum of $50,000. 

The committee on the Champlain memorial to be erected in the 
vicinity of Plattsburgh was authorized to enter into a contract for such 
memorial at a total cost not to exceed $1 5,000. This committee did not 



The Champlain Tercentenary 349 

make any formal report but its members individually expressed their 
preferences for a heroic size bronze statue of Champlain, mounted on a 
suitable pedestal, which might possibly be a replica of the Champlain 
memorial at St. John, New Brunswick, or some other of the Champlain 
memorials in America. This matter was under consideration when this 
volume went to press. 

In order that such memorials might be erected under the supervision 
of this Commission, it became necessary that its life be extended, as was 
done by Chapter 181 of the Laws of 191 1 , approved on May 22, which 
reads as follows: 

CHAPTER 181, LAWS OF 1911 

An Act to Amend Chapter One Hundred and Forty-nine of the 
Laws of Nineteen Hundred and Eight, Entitled "An Act to 
Provide for the Celebration of the Tercentenary of the 
Discovery of Lake Champlain, the Appointment of a Commis- 
sion, Prescribing Its Powers and Duties and Making an Appro- 
priation Therefor," as Amended by Chapter Forty-four of the 
Laws of Nineteen Hundred and Ten, Relative to the Powers 
and Duties of Said Commission and Extending the Time for 
Making Its Report to the Legislature and Reappropriating 
THE Unexpended Balance of the Appropriation Made by 
Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-three of the Laws of 
Nineteen Hundred and Nine. 

The People of the State of Neiv York, represented in Senate and Assembly), do 
enact as follo'ws: 

Section. 1. Section four of chapter one hundred and forty-nine of the laws of 
nineteen hundred and eight, entitled "An act to provide for the celebration of the 
tercentenary of the discovery of Lake Champlain, the appointment of a commission, 
prescribing its powers and duties and making an appropriation therefor," as 
amended by chapter forty-four of the laws of nineteen hundred and ten, is hereby 
further amended to read as follows: 

Sec. 4. Moneys appropriated for the commission shall be paid by the treas- 
urer on the warrant of the comptroller, issued upon a requisition signed by the 
president and secretary of the commission, accompanied by an estimate of the 
expense for the payment of which the money so dravm is to be applied, and vouchers 



350 State of New York 



for such expenditures shall be filed with the comptroller, who shall audit the same. 
Any unexpended balance of such appropriation, after payment of the expenses of 
said commission, and any moneys derived from the sale of any property held by 
such commission, as well as all funds paid into its treasury by public or private 
contributions for the erection of a permanent memorial to Samuel Champlain in the 
valley of Lake Champlain, shall be aggregated and kept as a special fund to be 
known as the Samuel Champlain memorial fund, to be used by said commission 
acting independently or in co-operation with the state of Vermont, the government 
of the United States, the dominion of Canada, the province of Quebec, and 
various patriotic societies, or any or either of them, in the erection of two suitable 
permanent memorials to Samuel Champlain at Crown Point and at Pittsburgh in 
the valley of Lake Champlain. The commission shall keep an accurate record of 
all its proceedings and transactions, and shall submit to the legislature of nineteen 
hundred and twelve a full and complete report thereof. Within thirty days there- 
after the commission shall make a verified report to the comptroller of the disburse- 
ments made by it. It shall have no power or authority to contract for the expend- 
iture of any sum in excess of the amount heretofore appropriated, except such funds 
as have actually been paid into its treasury by pubhc or private contribution for 
the erection of a memorial as herein provided, and it shall keep an accurate account 
of the receipts and disbursements of such contributions, if any, and include the same 
in its report to the legislature. 

Sec. 2. The sum of twenty-five thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three and 
seventy-two one hundredths dollars ($25,833.72), the unexpended balance of the 
appropriation for the Lake Champlain tercentenary commission made by chapter 
four hundred and thirty-three of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine is hereby 
reappropriated for the purposes mentioned in chapter one hundred and forty-nine 
of the laws of nineteen hundred and eight, as amended by chapter forty-four of the 
laws of nineteen hundred and ten, and as further amended by this act. 

Sec. 3. This act shall take effect immediately. 

At the meeting of the Commission on July 7, 1 9 1 1 , the minimum con- 
tribution to be accepted from the Vermont Commission was reduced from 
$15,000 to $13,000, towards the Crown Point Memorial. 

The Committee on the Memorial to be erected in the vicinity of Platts- 
burgh was authorized to increase the expenditure therefor from $15,000 
to $17,000. 



Appendix 

3S1 




•Phoenix." built at Vergennes. Vt.. in 1815. She was 146 feet long. 27 feet wide and 
had a speed of 8 miles per hour 




'Congress, 



•• bulk at Vergennes. Vt.. in 1818. She was 1 U8 feet long and 27 feet wide 




'General Greene." built at Shellburne Harbor. Vt.. in 1825. She was 75 feet long 
and 22 feet wide 




mm^'.n0. 



1, r v» •, r-'tre^i'^'^' 

•Franklin." built at St. Albans Bay in 1827. She operated between W h,.ehall and St. Johns 
and was commanded by Johazrel Sherman, great-grandfather of V.ce-Pres.dent James 
S. Sherman 



Ss^ 



r 






C Q -^ 











2 r^ 



lii 



< o 
u o 

x o 




SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND THE LAKE CHAM- 
PLAIN TERCENTENARY 

353 



24 



SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN AND THE LAKE CHAM- 
PLAIN TERCENTENARY 

By Senator Henry W. Hill, Secretary of the Netf YorJ( Lal^e Champlain Tercenlenar\f Com- 
mission, of Buffalo, iV. Y. 

(An address delivered before the Vermont Historical Society on November lOlh, 1908, in the 
House of Representatives, Montpelier, Vermont.) 

Mr. President, Members of the Vermont Historical Society, Ladies and Centle- 
men: The discovery of America awakened deep interest in European nations, 
and was followed in the sixteenth century by several trans-Atlantic voyages by 
Spanish, Portuguese, English and Dutch navigators, French colonization was 
early directed toward Canada, and in 1535 Jacques Cartier took possession of the 
northeasterly part of North America under the name of New France. One of the 
first colonies under M. de Roberval, suffered from the cold, damp climate, famine 
and disease, and was abandoned. Civil and religious discord obtained in the 
niother country, and not until Henry of Navarre became Henry IV, and a reign 
of peace ensued after a century of storm, did the French seriously turn their atten- 
tion to the colonization of Canada. 

About the year 1567, in the small seaport town of Brouage in the ancient 
province of Saintonge in Western France, a few miles from Rochelle, the strong- 
hold of the Huguenots, was born Samuel Champlain, whose father Antoine Cham- 
plain, was a sea captain. Shortly after his birth the town was fortified under the 
supervision of distinguished Italian engineers, with bastions and projecting angles 
surrounded by a moat and other devices of military architecture, with which young 
Champlain became familiar. 

The little town was several times besieged and taken by the Huguenots, and 
retaken and garrisoned and commanded by distinguished officers of the French 
army. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Brouage was the shifting scene of war and peace 
it was the center of an extensive salt industry, manufactured from sea water let into 
basins through sluices, and evaporated by the sun and wind, and a port frequented 
by the vessels of the merchant marine of several countries, between which and this 
port was maintained an active commerce. Champlain, in his earlier years, was 
thus made acquainted with military fortifications and engagements, as well as with 

355 



356 State of New York 



practical navigation, of which he says: " This is the art which in my earlier years 
won my love, and has induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the 
impetuous waves of the ocean," as stated by Edmund F. Slafter in his Memoir of 
Samuel Champlain. 

His practical knowledge of navigation was such that at the age of twenty-two 
he was placed in command of a French ship, chartered by the Spanish government, 
for a voyage to the West Indies. On this voyage he visited not only Cuba and 
the neighboring islands, but sailed to Panama, across which Isthmus a canal had 
theretofore been suggested, and visited Mexico, at whose capital he spent some time 
in studying Mexican institutions and the character of the people. Edwin A. Dix, 
in his Life of Champlain, in speaking of the visit of Champlain to the city of 
Mexico, says: '* He is enthusiastic over the beauty of the country; admires the 
forests with their rare woods, the birds of bright plumage, the spreading plains with 
herds of cattle, horses and sheep, the fertile agricultural lands, and the fine climate. 
Champlain himself in speaking of this condition, says: * But all the contentment 
I had felt at the sight of things so agreeable was but little in regard to that which 
I experienced when I beheld the beautiful city of Mexico, which I did not suppose 
had such superb buildings, with splendid temples, palaces and fine houses; and the 
streets well laid out, where are seen the large and handsome shops of the merchants, 
full of all sorts of very rich merchandise.' " On his return he visited the fine harbor 
of Havana and refers to the Morro Fortress, then in existence and capable of being 
garrisoned. He returned to Spain after an absence of two years and two months, 
with his vessels laden with the rich products of the New World. On his return 
to France in 1 601 , he rendered a full report of his voyage to the King, and gave a 
description of the methods of the Spaniards in colonizing the New World. He 
won the liking of the King, and a small income was settled upon him, which enabled 
him to live at court; but he was unwilling to live the life of a royal courtier. On 
March 15, 1603, he accompanied the expedition which sailed from Honfleur, 
which consisted of two barks, of twelve or fifteen tons each, one under command 
of Pontgrave and the other under command of Sieur Prevert. After a tempestuous 
voyage of seventy-five days they reached the banks of New Foundland, coasted 
along the island of Cape Breton, entered the gulf of St. Lawrence, and anchored 
in the harbor of Tadoussac, where an active fur trade was in progress with the 
Indians. After exploring the country around about Saguenay they proceeded in 
a small vessel by the site of Quebec, the Three Rivers, Lake St. Peter, Richelieu, 
then known as the Iroquois, and after passing the site of Montreal cast anchor at 
the Falls of St. Louis. On this voyage Champlain was enabled to confer with 
the Indians as to the topography of the country, the extent and courses of its rivers, 
and was informed by them of the large lakes and Niagara Falls to the southwest. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 357 



This was the first information obtained by the whites of the existence of the great 
cataract, if such information were in fact given him. 

On their return they took with them several Indians, and reached Havre de 
Grace on the 20th of September, 1 603, after an absence of six months and six 
days. Champlain immediately repaired to the court of Henry IV, and reported 
at length upon the discoveries he had made in the New World, and presented a 
map of the regions he had visited, drawn by his own hand. He also gave a 
description of the fauna and flora and the inhabitants. The King was deeply 
interested in Champlain's narrative, and offered to bestow upon him his favor and 
patronage. Year after year Champlain made voyages to New France, and searched 
out new ports, and coasted along the Atlantic from Cape Cod to the mouth of 
the St. Lawrence river. From 1604 to 1607 he explored the entire coast of New 
England, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, sailed into Plymouth harbor sixteen 
years before the Mayflower, but did not attempt to plant a colony there. In his 
voyages he described the rivers and bays communicating with the Atlantic ocean, 
and the islands that fringe its shores. It would be interesting to recount his 
experiences with the savages along the New England coast, the hardships which 
his little company endured during the cold winter months, exposed as they were to 
the proverbial northeasterly storms of the Atlantic, and poorly and but partially 
sheltered, without adequate food, and with maladies of various sorts, which swept 
away their numbers. However, time will not permit this to be done. Suffice it 
to say, that he left a full and detailed description of the New England coast, with 
maps and drawings by his own hand, far superior to anything that had been left 
by the navigators who had preceded him along the New England coast. It is not 
difficult to imagine the pleasure afforded Champlain, who had a profound love for 
such explorations and adventures as he had made from Plymouth to the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence. On his return to France he took early opportunity to report the 
results of his explorations to the King, and present maps and drawings of the bays 
and harbors of the coasts which he had visited. 

On April 1 3, 1 608, Champlain who had been appointed lieutenant of an 
expedition undertaken by De Monts, left Honfleur and arrived at Tadoussac on 
June 3d. He explored the mouth of the Saguenay, sailed up the St. Lawrence 
river to where a towering cliff narrows the great stream, and founded the first French 
colony in Canada. He gave it the native Algonquin name, Quebec, which means 
" narrowing of the stream." 

The colony was small and precarious, but formed a base of operations from 
which many expeditions went forth in quest of objects most dear to Champlain's 
heart. His two great desires were the discovery of a highway to the Indies, and 



358 State of New York 



especially in his later years, the conversion of the American aborigines to Christianity. 
It is this phase of his character, no doubt, which so enshrined him in the regard of 
the church, whose doctrines he sought to spread. 

The recent Tercentenary Celebration of the Founding of Quebec is fresh in the 
minds of the American people; and those who witnessed the elaborate pageants 
presented there under the supervision of Frank Lascelles, will not soon forget the 
realistic representation of the thrilling events that occurred 300 years ago along 
the St. Lawrence and in the circumjacent territory, explored by Samuel Champlain 
and his colonists. 

" After long and painful explorations on the waters and among the Indian tribes, 
and after frequent voyages to France in the service of the colony," he became 
Governor of Quebec in I 608. He was more of an explorer and navigator than a 
trader or colonizer, and accordingly his reputation has escaped the taint so common 
in the annals of New France, of illicit trade and fraudulent dealings, alike with 
the Indians and with the government. The profits of trade were simply a means 
to an end, and of little value otherwise. The fall of 1 608 was occupied by 
Champlain and his followers in erecting buildings and making preparations for the 
approach of winter. Forest trees were felled and hewed into shape for the con- 
struction of the walls and floors of buildings to accommodate the little band of 
colonists. During the fall there were twenty-eight men in the colony, but in the 
early winter disease made its appearance, which worked fearful havoc with them, 
and twenty of them were carried to their graves. The savages were hardly less 
free from famine and disease, and they gathered around the settlement in great 
numbers, in a condition of almost abject starvation. It was impossible for Cham- 
plain to supply them from his limited stores. The conditions were deplorable, and 
weighed heavily on Champlain's heart, and his sympathies ran out to the savages, 
as well as to his own colonists, in their desperate and starving condition. 

During the fall or early winter in one of his excursions up the St. Charles river 
he came upon a " crumbling stone chimney and other indications of a habitation, 
where Jacques Cartier and companions had passed the ill-fated winter of 1535, 
nearly three-quarters of a century earlier." Was this ominous of what was to 
befall the colony at Quebec? Champlain, however, did not despair, but gave the 
sick and dying such shelter and attention as were possible for him with his limited 
supplies and depleted numbers. The coming of spring, however, revived the spirits 
of the eight survivors of the colony, and preparations were made for a tour of 
exploration during the approaching summer. 

Champlain had already learned from the savages that there was a lake of many 
fair islands, surrounded by a beautiful productive country, lying far to the south- 
west, which he desired to visit. He also learned that beyond the lake was the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 359 



home of the Iroquois and the Mohawks, the enemies and foes of the Algonquin 
and Huron Indian nations. The latter nations proposed an expedition against the 
Iroquois, and that Champlain should accompany them. The colony was left in 
possession of Pontgrave who had just arrived from France. Champlain left 
Quebec on a tour of exploration on the 18th of June, 1609, with eleven men. 
together with a party of Montagnais. They ascended the St. Lawrence and came 
upon an encampment of two or three hundred Hurons and Algonquins, whose 
abode was on the shores of Lake Huron and the waters of the Ottawa. These 
desired to go to Quebec and inspect the fortifications there, of which they had been 
informed, before going to war, and Champlain acceded to their request; and after 
they had spent two or three days in examining the fortifications and in feasting and 
festivity, they again turned about and proceeded up the St. Lawrence and Richelieu 
rivers. In addition to Champlain and his two companions, there were sixty Indian 
warriors, and they were conveyed in twenty- four canoes. They proceeded up the 
Richelieu river, overcame the falls and rapids by transporting their canoes by land, 
and again entered the river above St. Johns, and proceeded toward the lake which 
now bears his name. 

It was now in the month of July, 1 609, when the Richelieu and the lake were 
in their most attractive vesture. Primeval forests with all the variety of temperate 
foliage covered the sloping banks and distant hillsides, and the balmy summer air 
was vocal with the songs of birds, whose plumage rivaled in beauty the native 
flowers of the valleys. The waters of the river and lake were teeming with many 
strange fishes unknown in salt water, and wild animals roamed over the beautiful 
islands, unmolested and undisturbed. 

Samuel Champlain was possibly 42 years of age and had seen something of the 
life of the courts of Europe and much of the life of the savages in America. He 
was a zealot in the faith and still had served under Henry of Navarre before he 
came to the throne. He had traveled extensively, visited many lands, made several 
voyages across the Atlantic in shallops so small that they would hardly be con- 
sidered safe by sailors of to-day in storms on Lake Champlain, and he had dis- 
tinguished himself as a sailor, navigator and colonizer. He was far from his 
native France and traveling with savages in terra incognita where the foot of the 
white man had never trod before. 

The exhilaration of the explorer Increased, as he proceeded southward up the 
Richelieu into the lake that bears his name. He tells his own story, admirably 
translated by A. A. Bourne, in his voyages and explorations as follows: 

*■ I felt these rapids of the Iroquois river on July 2 (this date may have been 
July 12), 1609. 



360 State of New York 



" All the savages began to carry their canoes, arms and baggage by land about 
half a league, in order to get by the swiftness and force of the rapids. This was 
quickly accomplished. Then they put them all in the water, and two men in each 
boat, with their baggage; and they made one of the men from each canoe go by 
land about a league and a half, the length of the rapid. * * * After we had 
passed the rapid, all the savages, * * * re-embarked in their canoes. * * * 
They had twenty-four canoes with sixty men in them." 

After describing the life of the aborigines in this vicinity, Champlain continues: 
" We left the next day, continuing our course in the river as far as the entrance to 
the lake. In this there are many pretty islands, which are low, covered with very 
beautiful woods and meadows, where there is a quantity of game, and animals for 
hunting, such as stags, fallow-deer, fawns, roebucks, bears and other animals which 
come from the mainland to these islands. We caught a great many of them. There 
are also many beavers, not only in the river, but in many other little ones which 
empty into it. These places, although they are pleasant, are not inhabited by any 
savages, on account of their wars. They withdrew as far as possible from the 
river into the interior, in order not to be suddenly surprised. 

" The next day we entered the lake, which is of great extent, perhaps 50 or 60 
leagues long. There I saw four beautiful islands 10, 12 and 15 leagues long, 
which formerly had been inhabited by savages, like the River of the Iroquois; but 
they had been abandoned since they had been at war with one another. There 
are also several rivers which flow into the lake that are bordered by many fine 
trees, of the same sorts that we have in France, with a quantity of vines more 
beautiful than any I had seen in any other place; many chestnut trees, and I have 
not seen any at all before, except on the shores of the lake, where there is a great 
abundance of fish of a good many varieties." * * * 

" Continuing our course in this lake on the west side I saw, as I was observing 
the country, some very high mountains on the east side, with snow on the top of 
them. I inquired of the savages if these places were inhabited. They told me 
that they were — by the Iroquois — and that in these places there were beautiful 
valleys and open stretches fertile in grain, such as I had eaten in this country, with 
a great many other fruits; and that the lake went near some mountains, which were 
perhaps, as it seemed to me, about fifteen leagues from us. I saw on the south 
others not less high than the first, but they had no snow at all " It has been said 
that on one or more occasions snow has been seen on Mount Mansfield in the 
summer months. 

Champlain with his two companions and Indian warriors proceeded southward 
along the west side of the lake to the encampment of the Iroquois, their enemies. 




■- d 



I c 



The Champlain Tercentenary 361 



He thus describes their meeting: " When evening came we embarked in our 
canoes to continue on our way; and, as we were going along very quietly, and 
without making any noise, on the twenty-ninth of the month, we met the Iroquois 
at 10 o'clock at night at the end of a cape that projects into the lake on the west 
side, and they were coming to war. We both began to make loud cries, each 
getting his arms ready. We withdrew toward the water and the Iroquois went 
ashore and arranged their canoes in the line, and began to cut down trees with poor 
axes, which they get in war sometimes, and also with others of stone; and they 
barricaded themselves very well. 

" Our men also passed the whole night with their canoes drawn up close together, 
fastened to poles, so that they might not get scattered, and might fight all together, 
if there were need of it; we were on the water within arrow range of the side 
where their barricades were. 

** When they were armed and in array, they sent two canoes set apart from the 
others to learn from their enemies if they wanted to fight. They replied that they 
desired nothing else; but that, at the moment, there was not much light and that 
they must wait for the daylight to recognize each other, and that as soon as the sun 
rose they would open the battle. This was accepted by our men; and while we 
waited, the whole night was passed in dances and songs, as much on one side as 
on the other, with endless insults, and other talk, such as the little courage they 
had, their feebleness and inability to make resistance against their arms, and that 
when day came they should feel it to their ruin." 

After describing what took place during the night Champlain proceeds to give 
an account of the engagement as follows: "As soon as we were ashore they 
began to run about 200 paces toward their enemy, who were standing firmly and 
had not yet noticed my companions, we went into the woods with some savages. 
Our men began to call me with loud cries; and, to give me a passageway, they 
divided into two parts and put me at their head, where I marched about twenty 
paces in front of them until I was thirty paces from the enemy. They at once 
saw me and halted, looking at me, and I at them. When I saw them making a 
move to shoot at us, I rested my arquebuse against my cheek and aimed directly at 
one of the three chiefs. With the same shot two of them fell to the ground, and 
one of their companions, who was wounded and afterward died. I put four balls 
into my arquebuse. When our men saw this shot so favorable for them, they began 
lo make cries so loud that one could not have heard it thunder. Meanwhile the 
arrows did not fail to fly from both sides. The Iroquois were much astonished 
that two men had been so quickly killed, although they were provided with armor 
woven from cotton thread and from wood, proof against their arrows. This 
alarmed thera greatly. As I was loading again, one of my companions fired a shot 



362 State of New York 



from the woods, which astonished them again to such a degree that, seeing their 
chief dead, they lost courage, took to flight and abandoned the field and their fort, 
fleeing into the depths of the woods. Pursuing them thither I killed some more of 
them. Our savages also killed several of them and took ten or twelve of them 
prisoners. The rest escaped with the wounded. There were fifteen or sixteen of 
our men wounded by arrow shots, who were soon healed. 

** This place, where this charge was made, is in latitude 43 degrees and some 
minutes, and I named the lake. Lake Champlain." 

The foregoing is, in substance, Champlain's narrative of his discovery and 
passage through Lake Champlain. He says: " The Indians told him of the 
waterfall and of a lake beyond three or four leagues long," and says that he saw 
the waterfall, but says nothing about the lake, which is assumed to be Lake George. 

There has been some controversy among historians as to the location of this 
engagement, but most agree that it was in the vicinity of Ticonderoga, although 
Mr. George F. Bixby, in a formal address before the Albany Institute on November 
5, 1889, contends that the first battle of Lake Champlain occurred at Crown 
Point and his address on that occasion will be read with interest by those who hold 
the latter view. The battle occurred on July 39, 1 609, and produced implacable 
hatred on the part of the warlike Iroquois toward the French. Its effect upon the 
Iroquois, who thereafter arrayed themselves against the French, is too well known 
to require further mention. After the battle Champlain returned to Quebec and 
continued to act as Governor of Canada until 1 629. He surrendered the govern- 
ment to the English in the latter year and returned to France. On his return to 
France in 1 609, he had reported to Sieur de Monts, then at Fontainebleau, the 
results of his explorations in the New World, and waited upon His Majesty, and 
gave him an account of his voyage, which was received with pleasure and satisfac- 
tion, and Champlain presented to him an account of the beautiful lake which he 
had discovered. 

Champlain was the first white man to set foot upon the territory now comprising the 
Stale of New York, and from his description of the islands in Lake Champlain he 
may have visited them also. The first island that he discovered in Lake Champlain 
was Isle La Motte, which he saw as he entered the north end of the lake, and from 
its location he may have landed at Sandy Point, where a settlement was made a 
few years later. 

Champlain and his two associates were undoubtedly the first white men to visit 
the territory now comprising the State of Vermont, and in his narrative he gives us 
'the earliest account of its aboriginal occupancy. 

His journey through the lake afforded him a view of the beauties of its mountain 
scenery, the admiration of tourists ever after. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 363 



His discovery of the lake, to which he gave his name, occurred nearly two 
months prior to the discovery of the Hudson river by Henry Hudson, and set into 
operation a train of events that gave the valley its French settlement that continued 
for nearly a century and a half. 

Long before its discovery by Samuel Champlain, in July, 1 609, Lake Cham- 
plain was the resort and battle ground of the savage Algonquin, Huron and Iroquois 
Nations, who peopled its islands and circumjacent beautifully shaded and picturesque 
shores. It was a paradise for the aborigines, whose native customs and adventurous 
but precarious life were a startling revelation to such an explorer as Champlain, com- 
ing as he did from the refinements of French life in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 
turies. Still he was hospitably received and escorted to and through the lake, then 
known as Caniaderiguarunte, which signifies the " gate of the country." The lake 
was also known as Peta-wa-boque, meaning alternate land and water, and also as 
Mer des Iroquois, It was traversed by the warring Indian tribes, whose canoes 
formed picturesque flotillas in those early days on the blue waters of the lake. 

Had Champlain been gifted with the poetic imagination of a Homer or a 
Virgil, he might have cast into an epic the story of his explorations and discoveries, 
which were quite as thrilling as those of the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid. 
Other poets have dwelt upon the beauties of this lake, and have sung of the tragic 
events that have occurred on its waters. 

The Champlain valley is one of the historic portions of the American continent. 
Its Indian occupation was succeeded by that of the French, and that in turn by the 
English. From its discovery, in July, 1 609, to the Battle of Plattsburgh, in Sep- 
tember, 1814, Lake Champlain was the thoroughfare of many expeditions and the 
scene of many sanguinary engagements. Noted French, British and American offi- 
cers visited it, and stopped at its forts, from Sainte Anne on the north, founded at 
Isle La Motte in 1 666, to St. Frederic, founded in honor of the French secretary 
of foreign affairs, Frederic Maurepas, by Marquis de Beauharnois, governor- 
general of Canada, at Crown Point, in 1 731, and Fort Carillon, founded at Ticon- 
deroga in 1 755, on the south. 

The grants of some of its islands and adjacent shores, lands under French 
seignories, were the subject of a long controversy between the French and British 
governments challenging on the one side the consideration of such officials as 
Marquis de Beauharnois and others under Louis XV and Louis XVI, and on the 
other side such statesmen as Lord Dartmouth, Edmund Burke and Sir Henry 
Moore, under the British crown. But few, if any occupations were made under 
French seignorial grants, and the controversy finally ended after the Seven Years* 
French and Indian war, which terminated with the capture of Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point by the British in I 759, and the later sovereign control by the Ameri- 
cans during the Revolution. 



364 State of New York 



The Champlain valley was the scene of important military and one naval engage- 
ment during the Revolutionary War, and permission has been obtained from the 
War Department to raise from the waters of Lake Champlain the Ro^al Savage 
at Valcour island, the flagship of Benedict Arnold during that engagement. The 
history of Ticonderoga and Macdonough's victory at the Battle of Plattsburgh 
in September, 1814, are of such national importance as to merit Federal considera- 
tion during the forthcoming celebration of the discovery of the lake. 

For two hundred years or longer the Champlain valley was the highway between 
Albany on the south and Quebec on the north, through which surged the tides of 
war and travel, until every prominent point and important island in the lake was 
marked by some notable event, worthy of historic mention. The proposed celebra- 
tion of the discovery of the lake will commemorate some of these important events. 
Sewell S. Cutting, D.D., in a poem read at the University of Vermont in 1877, 
thus describes some of these events. He says: 

I shift my theme, nor yet shall wander far. 
My song shall linger where my memories are. 
Dear Lake Champlain! thou hast historic fame, — 
The world accords It in thy very name. 
Not English speech these savage wilds first heard. 
Not English prows that first these waters stirred; 
Primeval forests cast their shadows dark. 
On dusky forms in craft of fragile bark, 
When first the pale face from the distant sea. 
Brought hither conquering cross, and fleur Je lis. 
On frowning headlands rose the forts of France, — 
Around them villages, and song, and dance. 
Four generations came and passed away. 
Of treacherous peace or sanguinary fray. 
When hostile armies hostile flags unfurled, 
To wage the destiny of half the world. 

Much more might be said of the historic riches of the Champlain valley, and of 
their importance in the building up of two States of the Union. Some of these are 
attributable to the settlements that followed its discovery by Samuel Champlain, 
and had he foreseen these he might have reckoned it an achievement not second to 
the founding of Quebec. 

Time will not permit me to give a detailed account of the events that followed, 
but there are a few that deserve special mention. In 1615, Samuel Champlain 
passed up the Ottawa to the Portage, crossed to Lake Nipissing, voyaged through 
that lake and down the French river, entering the Georgian bay. He was the first 
white man to behold Lake Huron, and a few months later the first to cross Lake 



The Champlain Tercentenary 365 



Ontario. He wintered with the Hurons in the Georgian Bay territory, and set out 
with them by the way of Lake Simcoe and the Trent river in an expedition against 
the Iroquois in Central New York. An engagement occurred not far from Onon- 
daga lake, in which Champlain was slightly wounded. Through his leadership his 
party was victorious, and after pillaging villages, destroying crops and leveling crude 
palisades, he returned to Quebec in the summer of I 61 6. From that time to 1 627, 
Champlain made annual trips to France. On some of these he entered or departed 
from the Port of Dieppe, which I visited in 1905. In 1629, a British fleet 
ascended the St. Lawrence river, and Champlain was forced to surrender, and was 
taken a captive to England. Before his arrival, however, peace was declared, and 
through the intervention of the French ambassador, upon information given in part 
to him by Champlain, the King of England, promised to restore New France to the 
French crown. In 1 632, Champlain was reappointed governor of the Colony of 
Quebec, and the following year assumed his duties as such. He was now an old 
man, with many infirmities, due to frontier service and many hardships, and on 
Christmas Day, 1 633, passed away in his chamber at Quebec. He was there 
buried with such honors as could be bestowed upon him by the colony, but the site 
of his burial place is now unknown. 

With the limited means at his disposal and the facilities afforded by the govern- 
ment which he represented, it may be safely said that he accomplished more than 
any other explorer of his age. His annual voyages across the Atlantic, in the frail 
barks of that time, tossed and tempest driven as they were by the fierce storms that 
swept the sea, were sufficient to have disheartened a navigator of less resolution than 
he, but these were only a few of the hardships to which he was exposed. The long 
winters spent in Canada, without proper protection from the elements, and with 
inadequate supplies, were hardships which few were able to endure. But in addition 
to these he explored vast areas of territory peopled only by savages, without proper 
food and with poor shelter, and exposed to all the maladies prevalent in a new and 
unsettled country. 

He compiled narratives of his voyages and explorations and drew maps of the 
various places that he visited, which were among the first left by any explorer. 

He was brave, high minded and distinguished for his Christian zeal and purity. 
He often said that " the salvation of one soul is of more value than the conquest of 
an enemy." He fostered Christianity and civilization, and succeeded in establishing 
a colony in Canada. He won and held the friendship of the Indians, who looked 
upon him as their most powerful friend and to whom they frequently repaired in 
time of trouble or distress. 



366 State of New York 



" Of the pioneers of the North American forests." says Parkman, " his name 
stands foremost on the hsts. It was he who struck the deepest and boldest stroke into 
the heart of their pristine barbarism. At Chantilly, at Fontainebleau, at Paris, in 
the cabinets of princes, and of royalty itself, mingling with the proud vanities of the 
court; then lost from sight in the depths of Canada, the companion of savages, the 
sharer of their toils, privations and battles, more hardy, patient and bold than they, 
such for successive years were the alternations of this man's life. He belonged 
partly to the past, partly to the present, the Preux Chevalier, the Crusader, the 
romance-loving explorer, the practical navigator, all claimed their share in him." 

The Stales of Vermont and New York have by legislative enactments authorized 
and appointed commissions, and made appropriations for the observance of the 
Tercentenary of the Discovery of Lake Champlain. to be held in the month of July, 
1909. These commissions have organized and are now formulating plans for that 
celebration. It has been proposed that exercises be held at Isle La Motte, Platts- 
burgh, Burlington. CrowTi Point and Ticonderoga, around which several points 
rotate most or all the great events occurring in the Champlain valley since its dis- 
covery. It is a matter of such importance as to challenge the attention not only of 
two States, but of the Federal Government, which will be invited to participate in 
the exercises. State. National and International events justify the co-operation of 
the Federal Government and the representation of two foreign governments. It is 
expected that the National Government will make suitable appropriation for that 
purpose, and will assume the responsibility of inviting and entertaining representa- 
tives from the Republic of France, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dominion 
of Canada. The diplomacy exhibited at the Quebec Tercentenary Celebration was 
such that the descendants of the French and English heartily co-operated in civil, 
military and naval festivities, commemorative of the important events of Canadian 
history. The Lake Champlain Tercentenary Celebration may also be made inter- 
esting if a similar spirit prevail among the peoples that participate in its conduct. 

This is an age of historical as well as scientific research. The domain of empires 
long since perished and the foundations of burled cities are being explored to learn 
something of the civilization of the peoples who lived in the youth-hood of the world. 
As a result Crete is revealing the wonders of the Mlnoan age, which " immediately 
succeeded the Neolithic." inspiring the poet to sing: 

Oh! temples of the eternal mystery, 
Oh I eternal mystery of temples! 

Mesopotamia is unfolding in its cylinders and monuments something of the life 
of the peoples who dwelt in its three hundred and sixty once flourishing cities; the 
Aegean. Grecian and Roman civilizations are matters of general Interest to the 



The Champlain Tercentenary 367 



people of this generation and all lands and all ages are yielding their treasures to 
the researches of explorers, archaeologists and historians. How can we justify 
ourselves in the opinion of succeeding generations if we fail to call the attention of 
the present generation to the important and thrilling events that have occurred in the 
Champlain valley during the three hundred years since its discovery? 

The success of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Celebration will largely 
depend on our fidelity to this duty and on our appreciation of the heroic services of 
those who have given it imperishable fame in the annals of American history. 
(Applause.) 




Statue of Champlain at Champlain. N. Y. 




Statue of Champlain at St. John, N. B. 




Statue of Champlain at Quebec 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE CHAMPLAIN VALLEY 

369 



25 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE CHAMPLAIN VALLEY 

By John M. Clarke. Ph.D., LL.D., Director of the New York State Museum 

AS THE TRAVELER is whirled along the rounding shores and through 
the clifl^s of this valley or piloted over the surface of its waters, 
however he may be impressed with its natural beauties, he rarely 
seeks to grasp the real source of them. The historian, busied in commem- 
orating the vivid human events which here have left their mark on the 
records of the nation, seldom stops to ask why these critical juxtapositions 
have happened in such a place. All the progress of human events in any 
place is too often assumed to be a matter of unguided chance; it thus 
happened that matters so fell out, and the train of events which led to 
them, if seen at all, is only in closest perspective. 

The truth lies far away from any such conception. Man has never 
been in reality the arbiter of his own fortunes but his history has been at 
the mercy of physical forces and events more ancient, more fundamental 
and more enduring than his slender maneuverings. 

There would have been no such record of events as this book com- 
memorates, no marching of armies or sailing of fleets through this pic- 
turesque spot, there could have been no struggle which was to decide here 
the perpetuation of our nation, of one human stock, of one language and 
one form of civil polity over another in a great section of the western 
hemisphere, if the ages before these issues were born had not made the 
stage on which the decisive acts were to be played out. 

The trains of action that constitute human history are so closely knit to 
geography that they are little else than one of its natural effects. We 
are apt to forget this; the narrower our radius, the closer we stick to our 
latitude and longitude, the less we range the broad earth and expand our 
horizon, the easier it is to think wrongly, illogically or immorally of human 
history. I may say immorally for the geography of our planet has as 
infallibly been the guide of human morals as of human history. 

371 



372 State of New York 

Geography, however, is but a present expression of geological forces 
and effects. As we are wont to use the term, geography means the 
existing configuration of the earth; but its exact meaning is of far wider 
scope, for the earth's geography has been changing from its beginning and 
it is not to-day what it was yesterday and will be to-morrow. History is 
indeed not the bare train of events through which human society has 
arrived at its present state. Such events by themselves are sterile things, 
not always inspiring, nor are their records always read aright. Walpole 
advised his son to read all else but history for that was a barren mass 
of lies. But back of the events of history is the philosophy which gave 
them birth, the struggle of ideas rather than men, the determination of 
future cultures rather than the achievement of the ambitions of sovereigns, 
the hopes of settlers or the comfort of the people. 

The events of history depicted in these commemorative pages, the 
shifting and conflicting procession of human interests, the tides of antagon- 
istic ideals, which advanced and ebbed again through the Champlain 
valley, must find their philosophic setting in the very existence of the 
valley, its configuration, the causes which brought it into being. The 
independence of the American republic and the predominance in this 
country of the English tongue, so far as these results were determined by 
the events of this valley, find the ultimate causes of their realization here 
in those throes of nature which brought this place into existence. Let 
us then take a backward glance over these preparative events. 

In the remote past of the earth where time is reckoned in work done, 
not years, and the mists hang like a fog bank where the most experienced 
skipper must navigate by dead reckoning, it is not always easy to find a 
single cause or one grand effect which may be taken as a starting point 
for a long chain of changes lasting through a great part of geological 
history. 

The valley of Champlain, its lake and its drainage, is inseparably 
connected in origin with the majestic and historic St. Lawrence river; 
as with their human history, both share a common geologic birth and 
progress. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 373 

The intrepid Malouin, Cartier, the first white man to wet keel in the 
St. Lawrence, after having taken possession of New France in the name 
of his sovereign, would have found no passage for his vessel, and Cham- 
plain none for his little craft on the lake which now bears his name had 
not a like series of ancient disturbances in the crust of the earth combined 
to produce both these valleys. 

The great mass of hard granites and their associated rocks which now 
make the Adirondack mountains and extend over vast reaches of Canada 
to Labrador on the east and toward the Yukon on the west, were for 
the most part laid down in the quiet waters of the primitive ocean. Soon 
they became shot through with molten rocks lying just beneath the thin 
but thickening crust and in time all were raised together above the 
water's edge as the majestic mountains of the first continent. So intense 
were the stresses to which they were subjected that the originally soft 
sediments of the ocean mixed with the soft lavas oozing into them from 
beneath, became the resistant solid heart of that great Laurentian mass 
whose apex is the Adirondacks and which the geologist calls the 
" Canadian shield." About the edges of this Canadian shield or primi- 
tive continent the ocean waters still laid down its sediments of mud and 
sand, lapping its margins then as they do to-day along the coasts of 
Labrador. As the ages lapsed, these sediments heaped themselves to 
a great thickness, and, little by little, under the slow process of time, were 
pressed out and dried into limestones and sandstones and shales, still 
carrying in their substance the remains of the animals whose lives were 
played out over these successive ocean bottoms. Thus lay the great 
Canadian shield tough and hard as an iron cap over northeastern 
America, surrounded by the softer rocks of the ancient paleozoic series, 
when first began that series of tremendous strains and stresses in the earth's 
crust which turned up into successive mountain ridges the ranges of the 
Appalachians. 

It was a lateral or tangential shove of the soft rocks against the harder, 
a mighty pressure from the depths of the ocean basis shoreward, and the 
softer rocks were crumpled into mountain waves like sheets of paper. 



374 State of New York 

Like an impregnable redoubt the Canadian shield stood unmoved under 
the assaults of these rock waves and along the line where the hard and 
the softer rocks met there was a great rift made through the earth's crust. 
To-day the traveler through the lower St. Lawrence sees at the north 
the low and rounded granite hills of the tough Canadian shield which 
have withstood all assaults of time save the eternal wear of water and 
weather, while at the south rise in majestic elevation the broken cliffs of 
limestone, sandstone and shale pushed to these hights against the granite 
mountains beyond. On Lake Champlain the western shore of old crys- 
tallines lies high and sheer while the contour of the downsunken eastern 
shore are low and gentle. 

The deep and long break across the rocks which outlined the course 
of the future St. Lawrence is sometimes known as " Logan's Fault," 
taking its name from the eminent Canadian geologist who determined its 
existence. Subsidiary or coeval seems to have been the fault which 
determined the Champlain valley. The St. Lawrence and its confluent 
valley, the Champlain, are the oldest waterways on earth. Together 
they have been first one long channel through which has flowed the sea 
that separated the parts of the growing continent, then the drainage ways 
of the larger continent, varying in their function but never changed in their 
position from the early dawn of geological time. 

It would be hardly correct to say that the valley of Lake Champlain 
was made by the breaking down of the rock strata along a single joint 
or rift. It seems more likely that the great strains which caused the rocks 
to break, here produced a parallel series of northeast and southwest rifts 
extending to such great depths that the unsupported blocks of rock 
bounded by these rifts were either pinched out of place or settled down 
under their own weight. So in the Champlain valley such a great block 
has probably dropped downward, more at the west than on the east, has, 
in fact, while sinking, been tilted over so that its western side sank deeper 
and left the walls of the next adjoining block on the west high and steep 
where they now stand from Port Henry to Bluff Point. This valley was 



The Champlain Tercentenary 375 

a zone of fracture and crushing and being so was the line of least resistance 
to the moving and eroding waters whether of the sea or land. 

Thus the Champlain valley was born, and whatever may be the changes 
through which it has passed, the faulted rocks still remain the controlling 
cause of its existence. It is easy to understand that such a downbreak of 
the rocks extending from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Montreal and 
probably farther west, and thence along the course of the lake, must have 
brought into existence a condition of weakness and unstable equilibrium 
in the rocks which did not exist before the rupture occurred. We do not 
know from any records in the rocks themselves, how often or how much 
since these primal disturbances the displacements may have continued. It 
is quite likely they have often been renewed and even to-day we may 
doubt if a final equilibrium has been reached in all their parts. There are 
records in human history which indicate the continuation of these attempts 
at readjustment. In 1 663, after the French had long been well established 
from Gaspe up to Hochelaga and beyond the religious establishments 
at Quebec and Tadoussac were keeping record of the doings along the 
river, occurred a great earthquake of which we have somewhat hysterical 
accounts in the reports sent back to France by the Jesuit fathers and 
Mother Intendant of the Convent of the Incarnation. But subtracting 
all that is necessary from these contemporary stories, imbued with the un- 
comprehending superstition of the times, there remains evidence that there 
did occur along this great line of Logan's fault a readjustment of the rock 
strata that set the country to vibrating in a way that has never been 
equaled in the earthquake annals of North America. The earth along 
the valley was torn and rent, the forests overthrown, the great river turned 
from its course in places; old streams disappeared and new waters issued 
from the ground. For seven years this region was shaken by ever lessening 
disturbances and for forty years after, travelers in the country recorded 
the evidences of the disaster. On Lake Champlain, which lay within the 
zone of influence of such a disturbance, stands Mt. Trembleau. I do 
not know that its name records the experience with these earthquakes of 
some French settlers on the lake but there is reason to so believe. We 



376 State of New York 

can not look back over the two hundred and fifty years that have elapsed 
and estimate these disturbances as remote. To geology they are but as 
yesterday and for every yesterday there is a to-morrow. 

A second stage in the history of the Champlain valley was during the 
early paleozoic days when it served as the Levis Channel, a sea way 
connecting the mediterranean sea which then covered the greater part 
of the eastern United States, with the Atlantic outside, by way of the 
St. Lawrence. Then there lay solid land to the east of this passage 
covering the New England states and reaching farther seaward than 
they do to-day. It was a free though narrow channel into which swarmed 
the sea life of the time whose remains the geologist finds buried in the 
rocks which lie on the summits of broken strata of an earlier date. 

This open sea way through the Champlain valley is most ancient; it 
dates back to that period which the geologist calls the Lower Silurian, 
when most of the present western continent was submerged beneath the 
ocean waters; and when this age closed the Champlain valley was 
elevated beyond the reach of the salt waters ; and so it follows that when 
the ocean waters had departed, no more rocks were formed in the valley. 
Its foundations had been laid and all its rock beds completed before 
these waters were excluded. Thus the region became continental and 
began its long career as a drainage way for the fresh waters of the land. 
Not till long ages after this did the salt waters ever re-enter the valley. 

From the departure of the ocean waters to their return are, to the 
geologist, the dark ages in the history of the valley. We know very 
little else of the doings there during the great stretches of time of the 
later Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and the Tertiary ages when elsewhere 
thousands of feet of rock strata were made by successive seas, than that 
the terrestial waters flowed through it, sometimes to the north to join 
the St. Lawrence and sometimes south into the interior mediterranean sea 
or to join the Hudson drainage. Whether the water moved to the south 
or to the north depended on the tilting of the land. But of this important 
fact we have a definite knowledge; during these ages the tributaries of 
the valley were wearing down the towering summits of the Adirondacks 




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The Champlain Tercentenary 377 

bringing them by erosion and the transportation of their decay down 
towards their present low level, while the main trunk of the stream itself 
was engaged in widening out its valley back to the base of the mountains 
as they stand to-day. 

With this long unrecorded interval of its history before us, while the 
valley was abandoned wholly to the modifications of weather and drain- 
age, we may let the character of the ancient rock beds in which the valley 
lies attract our notice. Fundamental and oldest of all are the crystalline 
rocks to which we have already referred as constituting the mass of the 
Adirondacks whose rocks run down here and there to the shores of the 
lake — the gray gneisses and schists of the Crenville series through which 
have broken the dark volcanic gabbros and lighter syenites, all together so 
tremendously folded, distorted and altered that the solution of their 
problems, their origin and relative order of succession has been the most 
difficult and obscure presented by any of the rocks of the State. One 
finds these Adirondack crystallines over short reaches on the shores and 
walls of the lake from Ticonderoga to Essex and from Willsboro to Port 
Kent. The railroad tunnels them above Port Henry and runs across 
them behind the steep lake front of Split Rock Mountain. On its way 
to Port Kent this picturesque road winds through deep cuts, around 
curving ledges of them and bores through their heart on the sheer cliffs of 
Willsboro. In them are quarries of granite, great bodies of magnetic iron 
ore at Mineville, Cheever and back in the mountains, extensive deposits 
of graphite at Ticonderoga and elsewhere. Their veins and fissures are 
the source of many interesting crystallized minerals. 

On these as a foundation lie the almost unaltered Potsdam sandstones, 
remnants of the oldest unchanged sea beach that we know, whose red 
and gray layers still retain the rippled surfaces left by the primordial 
waves and the trails of the primaeval animals which dragged themselves 
over the wet sands at the ebb of the tides. These sands once extended 
well over the mountains showing that the land was much more deeply 
submerged than now. The northern margin of the mountains still bears 
a continuous sheet of them but on the shore of the lake only isolated or 



378 State of New York 

broken patches are now to be found, scattered all the way from the upper 
tip of South Bay almost to Valcour island. Naturally such material was 
laid down in shallow water on a shelving coast line. In the breaking 
down of the rock floor at a later date some patches of the standstone were 
caught in the downthrusts and deeply buried while those that remained 
have been mostly worn away or contracted in volume during the ages. 
The Potsdam sandstone is displayed with compelling effect in the mag- 
nificent chasm of the Ausable river which has cut its way across these 
strata in the later history of the lake. Gradually, after this sand had been 
deposited to a depth of several hundred feet, the bottom of the sea began 
to sink more rapidly and in the deeper water thus made a mud was laid 
down, now the Deekmaniown limestone, overlying the Potsdam sand- 
stone in many places but without any disturbance in the regular succession 
of the beds, showing that there was no distortion or upfolding of the 
earth's crust to bring about this change. But right in the midst of the 
beds that are now known by this name, there was such a disturbance, 
when the lower limestone strata were raised for a while, distorted some- 
what, eroded under exposure to the air and then sunk again beneath the 
sea to receive more limestones above them. Then follow above in regular 
succession the limestones of later depositions, the Chaz^, Black River 
and Trenton, all together representing continuous formations in a pretty 
deep sea abounding in animals whose remains are found in the rocks where 
they died and those differences in kind in each formation form an essen- 
tial basis of distinction between the successive beds. This series of lime- 
stones are to be seen in many places; about Ticonderoga, at Crown 
Point and Westport, through Essex and Willsboro, all in thin strips or 
patches on the shore ; then in more extensive sheets from Valcour through 
Plattsburgh north to Rouse's Point and on the northern islands; Valcour, 
Grand Isle and Isle La Motte. 

The closing stage of the marine conditions in this ancient Silurian time 
is represented by shales deposited as the sea was shallowing again 
preparatory to the closing up of this Levis channel. The Utica and 
Hudson river shales are to be seen fringing the peninsulas and islands and 



The Champlain Tercentenary 379 

are much more extensively shown on the low shores of Vermont than 
on the New York side. They are the final term in the old rock forma- 
tions of the valley. 

In these rock beds the valley lies to-day as it has since its beginning. 
The only addition to them are the sands and clays which hang upon the 
hillsides or rest on the more gently sloping shores and these all pertain 
to the later stages in the history of the lake, to which we may now turn. 

When the waters of the present lake are very low, as they were in the 
dry summer of 1908, they uncover a series of wave cut shelves in the 
rocky ledges which are now, under normal conditions of the water, 
much below the reach of wave action. These are believed to represent 
the shore lines of a lake, just a little smaller than that of to-day, which 
dated back to a time preceding the advance of the ice-sheet — that con- 
trolling factor of the glacial period which so profoundly modified the 
topography of our country. This supposed pre-glacial lake has been 
named Lal^e Valcour and the only way we can fix its age is by the 
absence of any glacial deposits in connection with its varied shore lines. 

Then came down the ice of the Great Glacier; little by little it 
advanced southward from its center of dispersion in Ungava and northern 
Labrador, first following up the ancient and deeper valleys of the St. 
Lawrence and Champlain, then, as its volume increased with years of 
cold and moisture-soaked atmosphere, mantling the whole surface of 
the land even to the tops of all the mountains now remaining in this region. 
It was a heavy load that this slowly moving mass of ice piled upon the 
northern lands and it stayed for more thousands of years than we can 
now guess; it scored and scoured the old valley of Champlain to a great 
depth and greater width. When this glacier began to melt and its 
southern front to retreat back northward, it left here, as elsewhere, great 
marginal dams or frontal moraines of rock rubbish which the moving 
sheet had shoved before it or carried in its substance. The melting waters 
overflowing in great floods worked over this debris and rearranged it, 
but without removing it all to any great distance south. In front of the ice 
foot and behind the dams thus formed the melting water was impounded 



380 State of New York 

as fresh water lakes, some of them in other places much larger than all 
our Great Lakes joined in one. While these ice waters were running 
off to the south by the old Hudson valley outlet, the damming of that 
outlet raised the waters into a lake which overspread the present Hudson 
valley east and west as far as the steep bounding walls would permit. 
As the ice front in its retreat northward passed the mouth of the Mohawk 
valley, it let into this lake the great mass of glacial waters that had been 
held back in western New York; then and for a long time the Great 
Lakes were drained out by the Mohawk channel into the Hudson valley 
while the passage by the St. Lawrence still remained impeded by the ice. 
West of Albany are the great banks of sand, the Schenectady plains, 
laid down by these discharging waters, and on both sides of the valleys 
are clays and sands which extend northward continuously into the valley 
of Champlain. These clays and sands are the deposits of the glacial lake 
whose outlines we know pretty accurately now, and which is called 
Lake Albany. 

Lake Albany began its existence before the ice was out of the Cham- 
plain valley but as the front of the glacial mantle withdrew northward 
that valley too was filled with lake waters contemporaneous and co-ex- 
tensive with those of Lake Albany. The deposits from these waters 
narrow near the present divide between the two valleys and those of 
Champlain widen out over an area greater in diameter than the Albany 
waters ever reached, so we are in the way of conceiving them as distinct 
water bodies. This glacial Lake Champlain is called Lake Vermont and 
when at its greatest size it extended back into the valleys of the Adiron- 
dacks on the west and much further over the lower reaches of Vermont 
into the drainage ways of the Green Mountains. We know that, 
though it began its existence as Lake Albany was completed, it was not 
finished till long afterward. The Ice was still retreating back to its 
own place, the land was going down, so the lake waters rose to relatively 
great bights on the mountain slopes and until the Ice had reached and 
passed the valley of the St. Lawrence so long did Lake Vermont spread 
over the Champlain valley leaving Its sands and clays where they now 
cling to the valley slopes. But once the St. Lawrence had been passed 



The Champlain Tercentenary 381 

by the ice front and that ancient valley was again opened to drainage. 
Lake Vermont was tapped and its waters flowed out to the sea by the 
ancient passage. Thus died Lake Vermont after a life whose length 
can not be estimated but which it may be safe to say, was as long as the 
present Lake Champlain has existed. 

Now followed a momentous change in water conditions. The earth's 
surface which had been sinking in these latitudes since the beginning of 
the break up of the ice, kept on going down until the whole St. Lawrence 
channel from Ontario to the Gulf was below the level of the sea. This 
sinking brought down Champlain, too, below sea level, and thus gradually 
into this valley the salt waters ascended, rising as far to the south as 
Port Henry and covering in width almost as great an area as did the fresh 
waters of Lake Vermont which had preceded them. In a still broader 
body these marine waters stretched around the northern Adirondacks on 
to Lake Ontario and perhaps into some of the Finger-lake valleys of 
central New York. This was a long time ago but there are still to-day 
living in the deeper waters of Lake Ontario small animals whose ancestors 
came in with these marine waters but adapted themselves to the gradual 
change from the salt to the present fresh water conditions. This great 
salt bay extending to Lake Ontario is Gilbert gulf and the arm of this 
bay which filled the Champlain valley is the Hochelagan sea. In its 
deposits of clays and sands lying on the valley slopes are found the remains 
of sea animals, the bones of whale and seal, and the shells of mollusks, 
all indicating cold waters and a subarctic climate. Thus the sea had come 
into its own again and after the lapse of uncounted ages during which the 
continents of all the earth had well nigh been brought to completion, it 
flowed once more in the old Levis Channel. 

The clays and sands that carry these marine shells lie as high as three 
hundred or more feet above sea level and the animals are of much the 
same species as are still living in the northern waters of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence at depths of one hundred or more fathoms. Here then has 
been a change upward in the movement of the crust of about one thousand 
feet since the sea stood for the last time over the valley of Champlain. 

There remain now but the final changes in the valley to bring the lake 
to its present condition. The marine stage of the lake was brought to a 



382 State of New York 

close by a slow tilt of the entire Champlain-Hudson valley, depressing it 
at the south and raising it at the north. By this movement all the lower 
Hudson has been deeply drowned and its ancient canyon which once 
reached a hundred miles beyond New York bay lies buried now under 
fathoms of water. The counter movement upraised the Champlain 
valley and gradually turned back the marine waters till they were wholly 
shut out by the elevation of the valley bottom above sea level. The St. 
Lawrence with its heavy drainage from the Great Lakes soon washed 
out from its channels all remnants of the salt water, but in the Champlain 
valley, receiving only lesser streams from the mountain sides, this process 
was a slower one. 

Yet in time the waters were cleansed, though their volume was 
immensely lessened, and the lake gradually took on its present form which, 
as we have seen, is almost a reproduction of the size it had just before the 
ice invaded the valley. In these latter stages the outlet of the lake may 
have been for a while to the south but its present discharge to the north 
through the Sorel river re-established its ancient affiliation with the St. 
Lawrence. While we speak of this condition of the higher waters of 
the lake as of quite recent date yet some measure of its distance from us 
is suggested by the fact that since the retreat of these high waters the 
Ausable river has worn out its wonderful canyon through the rocks by the 
slow process of erosion, breaking down the sandstones along lines of 
weakness indicated by the vertical walls bounding the rifts in the strata. 

Thus by the slow changes we have indicated was the stage set for 
the play of human events which have left their marks in this valley and 
their influence on the history of mankind. Who will say that the geog- 
raphy of this valley has not dominated its events? The enclosed lake 
with its barely navigable outlet at the north bounded by forest-covered 
lowlands obstructing the easy movement of armies and fleets, may have 
ensured a wholly different outcome to the contending issues than if they 
had been fought out on an open freely navigable arm of the sea. Here, 
then, as elsewhere on the earth, we can perceive that geography has been 
a determinant factor in human history. 

John M. Clarke. 



EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHAMPLAIN 

VALLEY 

383 



EPISODES IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHAMPLAIN 

VALLEY 

By Frank H. Severance 

A RECORD OF THE CELEBE^TION of the 300th anniversary of the dis- 
covery of Lake Champlain may properly be supplemented by 
some account, not merely of that discovery, but of other significant 
and decisive events that have followed, and which constitute the history of 
the region. Although the details of that history would require an ample 
volume for their proper setting-forth, it is possible in a few pages, to direct 
attention to the principal events, especially those of an international char- 
acter, which have occurred in the Champlain valley, and which give to 
this region a peculiar importance in the history of America. 

Its aboriginal history — if the term history may be applied to a period 
prior to the beginning of trustworthy records — may be neglected, with 
little loss. A glance at the topography of the region tells the story. 
Here is a lake some ninety miles long, in the bosom of a valley of perhaps 
twice that length, having direct and easy communication with the great 
natural highways to the north and the south, the St. Lawrence and the 
Hudson. It was natural that rival tribes should contend for its control 
and meet in savage conflict on its waters. At the dawn of history here- 
abouts we find it virtually under the sway of the Mohawks, those 
easternmost leaders of the Iroquois Confederacy, into whose warfare 
with the Algonquins of the north it was the unhappy fate of the French 
to be drawn as soon as they attempted a permanent establishment m 
America. 

It followed that Champlain's adventure in the summer of 1 609 had 
a two-fold inspiration. Beyond question he was eager to explore, to find 
new lands and waters for his king, no doubt with a thought for the 
extension of trade and the spread of the Christian religion; but when in 
early July he came up the Richelieu and into the lake which bears his 
name, it was less as an avowed explorer than as a warrior armed with a 

385 
26 



386 State of New York 



gun — a device for killing heretofore unheard of in that wilderness. It 
was not at all as a trader or a missionary that he, first of all white men, 
made his way through the lake ; but as the friend and ally of his savage 
Algonquin escort, who rejoiced at the chance to guide him, with his 
death-dealing weapon, against their ancient and unsuspecting Iroquois 
enemy. When the rival bands met, a shot or two put to flight those of 
the enemy who were not killed; and the white warrior retraced his way 
to the St. Lawrence. Although history must accord to Champlain 
priority as an explorer of the region; although we know of no other 
white man who preceded him in a passage across the lake; although he 
was the first civilized man to look upon what are now portions of New 
York and Vermont states, the claim in his behalf, so far as the expe- 
dition of 1609 is concerned, cannot be carried much further. It won 
no new territory for his king, nor was there any wholesome extension of 
awe or respect for the power of French arms. On the contrary, the 
affair of the first killing by gunshot in what is New York State gained 
for the French the enmity of the Iroquois federation, which, for well nigh 
a century and a half, was to be to the rulers of New France, a source of 
vexation, of cost in money and blood, ending only with the conquest of 
Canada by the British. It is beyond the province of history to say, 
whether a happier train of events could have been started had the initial 
exploit of Champlain been less the act of an enemy. Obviously it was the 
natural course for the French to make allies of those aborigines with whom 
they were most closely in contact. Obviously, too, the friend of the 
Algonquin and the Huron was the enemy of the Iroquois. What might 
have been the fortunes of the French in America had their great explorer 
won the friendship and allegiance of the Iroquois confederacy is too purely 
speculative to make It a profitable field of inquiry. Happily for the 
record of human endeavor, the next period in the story of the Champlain 
valley is as rich in high and worthy motive as the initial expedition of 
Samuel Champlain is barren. 

Thirty-two years elapse before we come to the second episode in 
the history of Lake Champlain. The discoverer had died and a new 



The Champlain Tercentenary 387 

generation directed the precarious fortunes of the colony to which he 
had given his Ufe. Now, in 1 642, the most potent force in all of New 
France was not the armored white man with a gun, but the cassocked 
priest with the uplifted cross. In their zealous mission work among the 
Indians, the Jesuits drew no line against Algonquin, Huron, or Iroquois. 
They often seem to have courted service where the danger was greatest ; 
and small though the net results may sometimes seem, the story of their 
work stands unsurpassed as a record of pure devotion for the betterment 
of humanity. It is an incident in this long-continued work of this religious 
order among the savages that gives us our next glimpse of Lake 
Champlain. 

In August, 1642, Isaac Jogues, with Rene Goupil and Guillaume 
Couture, were carried as captives of the Iroquois southward through Lake 
Champlain. The " Relations " of their order record that on the 8th 
day they landed on a small island near the southern end of the lake; 
thence they were carried to the Mohawk towns to the southward. Goupil 
was murdered; Couture was taken back through Lake Champlain to 
Three Rivers, and Jogues finally made his way, with the aid of the Dutch 
at Manhattan, to France. 

Two years later, in the spring of 1 644, the Champlain valley again 
comes into history and again merely as a highway along which Joseph 
Bressani, an Italian Jesuit, also a captive of the Iroquois, was carried 
southward to the Mohawk towns. After detention and torture he, too, 
reached the Dutch on the Hudson, and later on was sent to France. 

Again two years pass. In May, 1646, we find Father Jogues once 
more journeying through the lake to the land of the Mohawks, this time 
not as a captive but bent on a peace mission. The overtures of peace 
and good-will were made with a curious blending of civilized and savage 
rites and the priestly messenger was permitted to return, paddling north- 
ward again through the lake, on his way to Quebec. Scarcely has he 
reached that settlement than he is again ordered into the Mohawk 
country. In August we find him once more journeying the now familiar 
route, accompanied not only by the necessary Indians, but by a young 



388 State of New York 

Frenchman, Lalande. It was to be his last voyage. Emissary of peace 
though he was, nothing but savage hostility awaited him among the 
Mohawks. In October both he and his French companion were 
murdered. 

First the warrior, then the missionary. The third episode in the history 
of the lake combines both of these forces. Although white men may 
have passed through the Champlain valley after Father Jogues, we find 
no record of such passage or indeed any allusions to the Champlain 
region for twenty years. Then comes the first step towards its occu- 
pation. This was the founding of Fort Ste. Anne, built early in the year 
1 666 by Pierre de St. Paul, Sieur de la Motte Lussiere, a captain of the 
regiment of Carignan. La Motte was its first commandant and the old 
chronicles record that in that same year some of his men who had gone 
hunting from Fort Ste. Anne were surprised by the Mohawks; some were 
taken prisoners, among them de Leroles; Captain de Traversy and the 
Sieur de Chazy were kilFed. A well-known stream which empties into 
the lake from the west bears to this day the name of this soldier. 

When Captain Sorel at the mouth of the Richelieu heard of the disaster 
at Fort Ste. Anne, he started southward with 300 men. Before reaching 
the Mohawk villages he met an " embassy " of the Indians, bringing back 
the captured Frenchmen. 

In order to strike a blow which should be decisive and win for the 
French in the Champlain valley some measure of immunity against the 
Iroquois attacks, de Tracy, in September of this year, led 600 settlers 
with 1 00 Hurons and Algonquin Indians into the Champlain valley. It 
was the greatest expedition that the region had ever seen. On September 
28th they made a rendezvous at Ste. Anne, resting there until October 3d. 
It is recorded that the expedition as it paddled away to the southward 
in bark canoes, carried with it two small cannon and also drums, and the 
sound of these drums proved more alarming than the engines of war. 

The story of that little campaign need not be detailed here. The only 
part of it that belongs to Champlain is the record of the going and the 
returning. On that return a storm on the lake caused the loss of two 
canoes and eight persons, among them the Sieur du Luques, a lieutenant. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 389 



The events of this campaign of 1 666 brought into the valley, and into 
the history of Lake Champlain, de Courcelle, the Governor of New 
France; de Tracy; de Salieres, commander of the famous regiment 
that bore his name; the Chevalier de Chaumont, with other soldiers of 
fame and worth. With them came also the Jesuits Albanel and Raffeix, 
the secular priest, Du Bois, and the Sulpitian Dollier de Casson, who for 
a time was chaplain at Fort Anne, and whose exertions saved the garrison 
from extermination by disease. The year following (1667) we find at 
Fort Ste. Anne Father Fremin, on his way to the Mohawk country, and 
with him Fathers Pierron and Bruyas, with Charles Boquet and Francois 
Poisson. Most notable of all was the visit, in May, 1 668, of Monseig- 
neur Laval, at that time Vicar Apostolic with the title of Bishop of Petrea. 
later the first Bishop of Quebec, whose jurisdiction extended over all the 
country that to-day forms the United States and Canada. 

In December, 1666, yet another expedition of similar character and 
purpose, passed back and forth on the ice of the frozen lake. 

The nomenclature of the lake offers a variety of names by which it 
was known in the earlier years. An aboriginal name, presumed Mohawk, 
is given as " Ro-tsi-ich-ni," " the coward spirit." " The Iroquois are 
said to have originally possessed an obscure mythological notion of these 
supreme beings or spirits, the good spirit, the bad spirit, and the coward 
spirit. The latter inhabited an island in Lake Champlain, where it died, 
and from this is derived the name above given." Other aboriginal appel- 
lations are '* Caniaderi Guarunte," " the door of the country," and 
" Peta-ou-bough," " a double lake branching into two," alluding to both 
Lakes Champlain and George. In some of the early reports the lake is 
referred to as Rogeo, or Regio, probably from " Re-gioch-me," the name 
of a Mohawk Indian who was drowned at Split Rock; the rock, and 
sometimes the lake, being afterwards called among the Mohawks by his 
name. The rock in question is said to have been regarded among the 
Indians as marking the boundary between the territory of the Mohawks 
to the south and the Algonquins to the north. From the day of Cham- 
plain*s discovery, the lake was given his name by the French, who alsa 



390 State of New York 

long continued to speak of it as '* lac Hiroquoise" or " Mer des Iroquois," 
lake of the Iroquois. After the drowning of Arent van Curler, the lake 
was long spoken of by the Mohawks, and to some extent by the Dutch 
and English, as Corlaer's Lake. 

While the French, though at long intervals, were sending their expe- 
ditions through Lake Champlain and seeking to establish themselves on 
its shores, the Dutch and English to the southward were by no means 
oblivious of this great highway or of the movements of the French. Early 
in 1666 spies sent out by Governor Winthrop of Connecticut reached 
Lake Champlain — which the Governor, in his report, calls Lake Hero- 
coies — and reported on the operations of the French. The correspond- 
ence of the French Governor, De Courcelle, shows that as early as 
1666 emissaries of the French and Dutch passed through the lake on 
errands for their respective governments. Such an emissary was Arent van 
Curler, or Corlaer, one of the founders of Schenectady, and a man so 
highly regarded by the Indians that in his honor they gave the name of 
Corlaer to the Governors of New York. In the summer of 1667 he 
set out from New York with one Fontaine, to visit the Governor of 
Canada, but was overtaken by a squall on Lake Champlain and drowned 
near Split Rock in crossing what is now known as Peru Bay, Essex 
county, N. Y., but was in earlier years called Corlaer*s Bay. 

For the next twenty years there is little or no mention of Lake Cham- 
plain in either the French or English colonial records, though there is no 
doubt that war parties, or traders, especially in the French interest, passed 
repeatedly through the valley. In September, 1687, Dyrick van der 
Heyden, Nanning Harmensen and Fredrych Harmensen, who had been 
taken prisoners by the French on Lake Huron and carried to Quebec, 
made their escape and in five days reached Albany, by way of Lake 
Champlain. Governor Dongan at that time recognized the strategic 
importance of the Champlain valley, and proposed to build forts there. 

The French and Indian expedition which destroyed Schenectady in 
the winter of 1 690, followed Champlain's route of 1 609 to Ticonderoga, 
marching for the most part on the ice of the frozen lake. On the return 



The Champlain Tercentenary 391 

the same route was followed, there being carried back thirty prisoners, 
some of them wounded, much plunder and fifty horses, all but sixteen 
of which were killed for food. 

It was in retaliation for this stroke that Captain John Schuyler led a 
band of volunteers into Canada in August of 1690, Christians and 
savages, some 1 50 in all. They passed by canoe through Lake Cham- 
plain, fell upon the French at La Prairie, killing and capturing about 
twenty-five men and women, then making a rapid retreat southward 
through the lake, stopping at Isle La Motte and other points, and reach- 
ing Albany on August 30th. Such partisan raids were not a very noble 
form of warfare, but they were typical of the strife that was maintained 
for many years between the rival colonies. 

In June of 1691 Major Peter Schuyler led a yet larger party of 
" Christians and Indians " against Canada. By the middle of July, 
when he had got his uncertain forces to Ticonderoga, it numbered 260 
men all told. Canoes were built and a cautious advance made northward 
through the lake. On the 26th of July, reaching Isle La Motte, he 
reported the fort there as " several years deserted.'* Schuyler's band fell 
upon the fort and village of La Prairie, losing, by the official report 
twenty-five men, and killing about 200 of the enemy. Then came a 
hurried retreat of the victors up the lake, Albany being reached on 
August 9th. 

In January, 1693, a band of Indians, Canadians and soldiers, led by 
Matet, Courtemanche and La Nove, left Chambly on snow shoes, 
marched over the ice of Lake Champlain, thence across country to the 
Mohawk towns, where they killed, made captive, and burned. Retrac- 
ing their steps, they were followed by Major Peter Schuyler, with a body 
of armed settlers and Indians. The retreat to Montreal was made 
desperate by severe weather and lack of food rather than by the enemy. 
It was a costly affair for all parties with substantial profit for none. 

Late in 1696, a war party of French and Indians appeared near 
Albany, burned and killed, and fell back to Lake Champlain. " Tliree 
and twenty Indians and three Christians " were sent after them by 



392 State of New York 

Governor Fletcher. The pursuers marched with all speed to Lake 
Champlain where they destroyed the enemy's canoes, then fell upon the 
fugitives, killed seven, and took their scalps back to Albany. In reporting 
this typical bit of international strife in the Champlain valley. Governor 
Fletcher adds significantly : ** Tis believed the rest will perish in the 
woods." 

It was Major Peter Schuyler who, in May, 1698, with Godfrey 
Dellius, the minister of Albany, passed through Lake Champlain by 
express canoes, hastening from New York to Quebec with copies of the 
treaty of Ryswick in French and Latin. France and England were at 
peace, but their representatives in America were long in adjusting them- 
selves to such unwonted condition. Among other difficulties, was the 
matter of exchange of prisoners held by the Indians, and the perpetual 
question of Iroquois allegiance. Regarding these matters, in August 
Governor Bellomont sent Captain John Schuyler with letters to Fron- 
tenac, the French Governor. It is worth noting the speed with which a 
canoe express could travel in those days. Captain Schuyler, on Sep- 
tember I St, got ** four miles into Corker's Lake." " On the 2d," says 
his report, ** came neere to Fort Lamott," having thus paddled prac- 
tically the length of the lake, or more than eighty miles, in a day. 

Whoever traces the progress of this century-long strife between Canada 
and New York, cannot fail to be impressed with the services rendered 
to this latter colony by members of the Schuyler family, especially 
Captain John and Major Peter Schuyler. It is not strange, although 
wholly without foundation, that Beauharnois, in 1731, should report 
in his despatches relating to Crown Point : " The King of England has 
granted Lake Champlain to the children of Sieur Peter Scult [Schuyler] . 
a well-known resident of Orange. Therefore, we must anticipate the 
establishment they may form at Crown Point." 

Although by the Treaty of Utrecht, concluded in 1713, the Cham- 
plain valley was a part of the neutral territory where neither the French 
nor the English had a right to establish themselves, yet the French con- 
strued that treaty to suit their own ends and in 1 73 1 , a time of absolute 



The Champlain Tercentenary 393 



peace between France and England, made the first permanent estab- 
lishment on Lake Champlain. This was at first a simple stockaded fort 
named for the French Secretary of State, Frederic Maurepas, but from 
its establishment known in French annals as Fort St. Frederic. To the 
English, by a curious translation of the Indian name, it was known as 
Crown Point. 

For many years it was a very feeble garrison. Had the English 
colonies been able to join in any plan of campaign with even a small 
force, they probably could have wrested Crown Point from the French. 
The Canadian Governor seems to have recognized the fact that they 
had little to fear from their English rivals; for they made no haste to put 
St. Frederic in a condition for defense. As late as 1 747, it was too badly 
constructed and too feebly garrisoned to have defended itself against 
any resolute attack, but feeble as it was, it was a sign of greater energy 
on the part of the French interests than the English could command in 
this region. 

Many a colonial governor of New York had recommended the build- 
ing of a fort on Lake Champlain. As early as 1715 this was being advo- 
cated by Colonel Hunter; Governor Cosby in his time wrote at length 
to the British ministry urging the same proposition, and so in later years 
did Lieutenant-Governor Clarke, and others. Most energetic of all the 
colonial governors was George Clinton, who, in 1745, endeavored to 
engage the other English colonies in America in a joint campaign against 
the French at this outpost in the Champlain valley. Governor Clinton 
sent up from New York to Albany cannon, powder and ball, and other 
munitions of war, but he wholly failed in gaining the cooperation that 
was essential to an effective campaign. A little later, in 1 745, we find 
Governor Clinton still urging a move against the French on the lake, 
while General Shirley characteristically opposes it as impracticable. 

The gradual development of Fort St. Frederic from a feeble stock- 
aded post, in 1 73 1 , to a stone and earthwork fortress of great strength, 
which it had become by I 749, can be traced through the correspondence 
of the French officials of that period. In the year last named, when 
the Swedish traveler, Peter Kalm, passed through Lake Champlain, he 



394 State of New York 

found the fort a quadrangular structure with high thick walls, with a 
tower, everywhere bombproof, and well stored with cannon. Houses 
of stone had been built for the officers and soldiers; there was also a 
church and many other minor constructions within the fortifications or 
under the protection of the guns. 

A still earlier glimpse of the fort is found in the narrative of the Rev. 
Emanuel Crespel, a recollect of the Franciscan Order, who was sent to 
Crown Point in 1 735, arriving there November I 7th. 

According to him, the Indian custom of scalping originated at this 
place. He says: " When the Indians kill any one on their expeditions 
it is their custom to take off his scalp, which they bring in on top of a 
pole, to prove that they have defeated the enemy. This ceremony, or, 
if you like, this custom, begun on this point, after a kind of combat in 
which many Indians lost their scalps, gave name to the place where the 
battle was fought." 

Father Crespel gives no general account of the fortifications, but 
clearly shows that they were in an unfinished condition as late as 1 735. 
*' The fort," he says, " which we have in this place, bears the name of 
St. Frederic. Its situation is advantageous, for it is built on an elevated 
point about fifteen leagues distant northerly from the extremity of the 
lake. It is the key of the colony on that side ; that is to say, on the side 
of the Enghsh who are only twenty or thirty leagues off." 

Of his journey through Lake Champlain to Crown Point, he writes: 
*' The day of my departure from Chambly, a post about forty leagues 
from St. Frederic, we were obliged to sleep out and during the night 
about a foot of snow fell. The winter continued as it set in and although 
we were lodged we did not suffer less than if we were in the open fields. 
The building where they put us was not yet finished and we were only 
partially sheltered from the rain, and the walls, which were twelve feet 
thick, having been finished only a few days, added still more to our 
troubles which the snow and rain gave us. Many of our soldiers were 
seized with scurvy, and our eyes became so sore that we were afraid of 
losing our sight without resource. We were not better fed than lodged. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 395 

Scarcely can you find a few partridges near the fort and to eat venison 
you must go to Lake George to find it, and that is seven or eight leagues 
off. We finished our building as soon as the season would permit, but 
we preferred to camp out in summer rather than remain any longer. Yet 
we were not more at ease, for the fever surprised us all and not one of us 
could enjoy the pleasures of the country." 

Father Crespel was recalled to France and left Fort St. Frederic 
September 21,1 736. 

The conquest of Canada ended French domination in the Champlain 
valley. The last four years of their supremacy in the region were 
crowded with events, many of them among the most familiar in American 
history. It is unnecessary in the present review to attempt a detailed 
narrative of those campaigns. From 1731 to 1755 the only stronghold 
of the French on the lake had been at Crown Point. By the last-named 
year it had been made worthy the name of fortress and was strongly 
garrisoned. It was from Crown Point that Dieskau led his army of 
700 regulars, 1 ,600 Canadians and 700 Indians, against the British at 
Lake George. An outcome of that campaign was a baronetcy for 
William Johnson, but the English operations were wholly ineffective so 
far as affecting the control of Lake Champlain. 

In the following year the French fortified Fort Ticonderoga and 
strengthened themselves at Crown Point, but there were no military 
movements of importance on the lake. 

In 1 757 the greatest army which France had sent against her heredi- 
tary foe in America gathered in July at Ticonderoga, some 6,000 French 
and Canadian soldiery and 1 ,700 Indians. This force advanced to the 
siege of Fort William Henry, which capitulated after six days, and then 
followed that massacre of the 1 0th of August, which forms one of the most 
horrible records of atrocities in the annals of our State. 

Still the French were supreme on Champlain, thanks largely to the 
skill and devotion of Montcalm. In 1 758 came Abercromby with 6,300 
regulars and 9,000 provincials, to oppose whom Montcalm held at 
Ticonderoga 2,900 French regulars and 450 Canadians. There was a 



396 State of New York 

desperate assault, waste of life, and determined defense, and Aber- 
cromby retreated with the remnant of his splendid army to take his 
place with Johnson and Webb in the list of the unsuccessful. 

The British ministry saw that a more decisive blow must be struck 
than had yet been attempted. For the first time in this war a capable 
man was placed at the head of the American operations. Amherst, 
supreme in command, undertook the personal direction of the campaign 
against the French in the Champlain valley. Again the British armies 
move northward through Lake George and camp under the guns of 
Ticonderoga, but this time, instead of the determined defense of the year 
before, there is no defense at all. The French blew up Ticonderoga and 
retreated to the northward. They also destroyed Crown Point and left 
Lake Champlain to the British. Minor exploits there were, but the 
decisive step had been taken, Ticonderoga and Crown Point had at last 
come into the hands of the British ; and British they remained until a cer- 
tain May morning in 1775 when Ethan Allen and his little band 
demanded and secured their surrender in the name of the Great Jehovah 
and the Continental Congress. 

For practically a century after Champlain entered upon the lake, its 
part in American history was that of a great highway for war parties. 
The Peace of Ryswick in 1697 was soon followed by a formal treaty 
between the French and the Five Nations. If, for a time, this truce 
stayed the work of the tomahawk and the firebrand, it was soon for- 
gotten. From 1 702, in which year Queen Anne's war was begun, for 
a long term of years, the New York and New England colonies were 
again subject to the attacks of marauding parties in the French interest. 
Many of them passed through Lake Champlain, by fleets of canoes in 
summer, on the ice in winter. Such a party it was in I 704 that fell upon 
defenseless Deerfield. It had followed the route from Canada up Lake 
Champlain to the Winooski river, thence ascending that river and crossing 
the mountains into the valley of the Connecticut. 

The attempts which the English made to dispute possession of the 
Champlain region were so feeble and ineffective that it is not strange 



The Champlain Tercentenary 397 



that the French came to regard it as their own, not merely by right of 
discovery, but because there was no effective opposition to their occu- 
pancy. 

They made their first settlement on the lake in 1 73 1 at Crown Point. 
In 1 696 New York had made a great land grant to Dominie Godfrey 
Dellius, which extended up the east side of Lake Champlain as far as 
the present village of Panton; but there had been no British occupancy 
north of the Hudson. Towards the close of the period of French control, 
numerous tracts were granted in the French interests on both sides of 
the lake, some of them of great extent. At the head of the lake were the 
seigniories of Alainville and Hocquart, the former reaching to Lake 
George, the latter, on the east of Lake Champlain, overlapping a part of 
the Dellius tract. There were numerous other French grants on both 
sides of the lake, dating from I 743 to 1 758. Little or no attempt was 
made to occupy them. After the conquest of Canada, in 1 760, many 
tracts of the Champlain lands were parceled out by the British, chiefly 
to non-commissioned officers and soldiers, and ignoring the French claim- 
ants. In several cases, however, the French claimants urged their rights 
through a considerable term of years. Some of them had forfeited their 
titles by non-compliance with conditions of the grant; others, notably 
M. Lotbiniere, whose grant had been confiscated, contended against the 
British, though in the end without success. In the case of M. Lot- 
biniere, the officials at Whitehall, as late as February 13, 1776, could 
find no better solution than to recommend that King George should direct 
the Governor of Quebec to make to the French claimant a new grant of 
other lands in Canada. By this time, however, the tenure of British 
subjects in the Champlain valley had become precarious, and before 
long they were all destined to be dispossessed of their holdings and routed 
from whatever slight foothold they may have gained. All vested interests 
in the region were readjusted by the war which gave the American 
colonies their independence. 

The varied story of conflicting claims does not end, however, with 
the supremacy of American control in the valley. There is no more strik- 



398 State of New York 

ing chapter in the whole history of Lake Champlain than that which 
relates to the contest between New York and New Hampshire over the 
lands granted by each and claimed by each even to the point of border 
warfare. The claims which New Hampshire and New York both urged 
finally disappeared with the creation of the State of Vermont, the first 
State to be added to the Union of the original thirteen. 

Immediately following the war of 1812-14 a military post was estab- 
lished at Plattsburgh, the Barracks being used, during the Civil War, 
as a rendezvous for the Sixteenth, Ninety-sixth and One Hundred and 
Eighteenth New York Regiments. In 1890 it was made a regimental 
post, and additional land was acquired, including Crab Island, lying 
southeast of the Barracks and about one mile from the main land. At 
the conclusion of the Battle of Plattsburgh, a hospital was established on 
the island, and the sailors killed in the battle were buried there. The 
graves remained unmarked until a few years ago. The officers of the 
Champlain Assembly urged that the island be converted into a National 
Military Park, to be known as the Macdonough National Military Park. 
They were joined by other patriotic societies, and an appropriation was 
secured for the improvement of the grounds and the erection of a monu- 
ment, as shown elsewhere herein. Bronze tablets are placed on each 
side of the pedestal, with inscriptions as follows: 




Monument, Crab Island, Lake Champlain 



The Champlain Tercentenary 399 



(East Side) 

NAVAL ENGAGEMENT 

OFF 

VALCOUR AND SCHUYLER ISLAND 

LAKE CHAMPLAIN 

OCT. nth and 13th. 1776 

AMERICAN LOSS 

About 90. 



(North Side) 



BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN 
(NAVAL ENGAGEMENT) 
SEPT. 11, 1814 
AMERICAN SHIPS ENGAGED 
Ship SARATOGA 
Ship BIG EAGLE 
Schooner TICONDEROGA 
Sloop PREBLE 
GUN - BOATS 
BORER CENTIPEDE 

WILMER NETTLE 

ALLEN VIPER 

BURROWS LUDLOW 

ALWYN BALLAD 

AMERICAN LOSS 

52 Killed 58 Wounded 

Commodore THOMAS McDONOUGH 
Commanding American Fleet. 



400 State of New York 



(West Side) 

TO THE MEMORY 

OF THE 

OFFICERS. SOLDIERS and SAILORS 

OF THE AMERICAN ARMY & NAVY 

WHO WERE KILLED 

AT THE 

BATTLE OF PLATTSBURGH. N. Y. 

SEPT. II. 1814 

AND 

BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN AND 

NAVAL ENGAGEMENT 

SEPT. 11. 1814 

SECOND WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 



(South Side) 

BATTLE OF PLATTSBURGH 

LAND ENGAGEMENT 

SEPT. 11, 1814 

AMERICAN LOSS 

37 Killed. 65 Wounded. 20 Missing. 

BRIGADIER GENERAL 

ALEXANDER McCOMB. Commanding 

THE AMERICAN ARMY 

ON SEPTEMBER 11. 1814 

THE BRITISH FORCES MADE A COMBINED 

LAND AND NAVAL ATTACK 

UPON THE AMERICAN ARMY 

STATIONED AT PLATTSBURGH 

AND THE AMERICAN SQUADRON 

IN PLATTSBURGH BAY, LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

BUT WERE REPULSED. RESULTING 

IN ONE OF THE MOST 

DECISIVE AMERICAN LAND 

AND NAVAL VICTORIES OF THE 

WAR. 



WHAT EARLY TRAVELERS SAID OF THE 
CHAMPLAIN VALLEY 

401 



27 



WHAT EARLY TRAVELERS SAID OF THE 

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY 

By Frank H. Severance 

ALLUSION HAS BEEN MADE in preceding pages to the narrative of 
Peter Kalm, probably the earhest traveler to visit Lake Champlain 
and record his impressions in a book. Kalm's visit was excep- 
tional. It was not for many years that another tourist came to pass 
through the Champlain region. 

Towards the close of the eighteenth century there began to come into 
the region travelers who visited it with a view to writing their impressions. 
From about 1800 to the middle of the Nineteenth century there is 
abundant literature, chiefly the work of English travelers who passed 
through the Champlain valley in the course of their American journeys. 
What these visitors had to say of the region is to-day of curious interest 
and is not without value to the student of history; for although often 
misinformed, and recording the passing impressions of the moment, they 
nevertheless made note of conditions and incidents which typify the 
life of the time better than can be found expressed in more studied 
writings. 

It is worth while to make a review of some of these narratives. One 
of the earliest travelers to penetrate to the Champlain country, and one 
of the best observers among the foreign visitors to America, was Isaac 
Weld. He was an English artist of ability who traveled extensively 
through the United States and Canada in the years 1 795, '96 and '97. 
His account of these travels, first published in London in 1 799, became at 
once a popular book. It went through many editions and was trans- 
lated into several languages, there being extant two distinct translations 
into German. He illustrated his narrative with drawings of a high order 
of merit. It was in July, 1 796, that he journeyed through the valley of 
the upper Hudson to Skenesborough, where he hired a small boat of 

403 



404 State of New York 

about ten tons for the voyage on Lake Champlain. He tells, with 
interesting detail, of his difficult experience in getting under way, and 
draws a graphic picture of his entertainment at the home of a frontiersman 
of Vermont, who extended to him a rude hospitality. " The people at 
the American farm houses," he says, " will cheerfully lie three in a bed 
rather than suffer a stranger to go away who comes to seek for a lodging." 
Reaching Ticonderoga after a stormy passage of the lake, he writes of 
it: " The only dwelling here is a tavern, which is a large house built of 
stone." Although the conditions were rude and poor and there were 
numerous guests, our English artist still experienced marked hospitality, 
of which he writes at length. " The old fort," he records, " and barracks 
of Ticonderoga are on the top of a rising ground just behind the tavern ; 
they are quite in ruins and it is not likely they will ever be rebuilt, for 
the situation is very insecure, being commanded by a lofty hill called 
Mount Defiance." 

Sailing next day to Crown Point, Weld found there nothing but a 
heap of ruins. His record of the condition of these famous forts at 
so early a period is valuable. " The vaults," he writes, " which were 
bomb proof, have been demolished for the sake of the bricks for build- 
ing chimneys. At the south side alone the ditches remain perfect; they 
are wide and deep and cut through immense rocks of limestone, and from 
being overgrown towards the top with different kinds of shrubs have a 
grand and picturesque appearance. The view from this spot of the 
Fort and the old buildings in it overgrown with ivy, of the lake and of the 
distant mountains beyond it, is indeed altogether very fine. The fort 
and seven hundred acres of good cleared land adjoining to it are the 
property of the State of New York and are leased out at the rate of 
$150, equal to £33 10s. sterling per annum, which is appropriated for 
the use of a college. The farmer who rented it told us he principally 
made use of the land for raising cattle. These, in the winter, when the 
lake was frozen, he drove over the ice to Albany, and there disposed of." 

Our English artist noted that Crown Point was the most advantageous 
spot on Lake Champlain for a military post. Across the lake, at Chimney 



The Champlain Tercentenary 405 

Point, on the date of his visit, there were a few houses and a tavern. 
" While we staid there," he continues, *' we were very agreeably sur- 
prised for the first time with the sight of a large birch canoe on the lake, 
navigated by two or three Indians in the dresses of their nation." 

Weld continues with a long account of these Indians and their trading 
and village near the lake. He voyaged northward through the lake 
and his artistic temperament was much impressed by the beauty of the 
shores. The following episode illustrates his experiences : 

The scenery along various parts of the lake is extremely grand and picturesque, 
particularly beyond Crown Point; the shores are there beautifully ornamented with 
hanging woods and rocks, and the mountains on the western side rise up in ranges 
one behind the other in the most magnificent manner. It was one of the finest even- 
ings possible that we passed along this part of the lake, and the sun setting in all 
his glory behind the mountains, spread the richest tints over every part of the 
prospect ; the moon also appearing nearly in the full, shortly after the day had closed, 
afforded us an opportunity of beholding the surrounding scenery in fresh though 
less brilliant colours. Our little bark was now gliding smoothly along, whilst 
every one of us remained wrapt up in silent contemplation of the solemn scene, 
when suddenly she struck upon one of the shelving rocks: nothing but hurry and 
confusion was now visible on board, every one lending his assistance; however, at 
last, with some difficulty, we got her off; but in a minute she struck a second time; 
at last she stuck so fast that for a short time we despaired of being able to move 
her. At the end of a quarter of an hour, however, we again fortunately got her 
into deep water. We had before suspected that our boatman did not know a great 
deal about the navigation of the lake, and on questioning him now, it came out, 
that he had been a cobbler all his life, till within the last nine months, when he 
thought proper to change his business, and turn sailor. All the knowledge he had 
of the shores of the lake was what he had picked up during that time, as he sailed 
straight backward and forward between St. John's and Skenesborough. On the 
present occasion he had mistaken one bay for another, and had the waves been 
as high as they sometimes are, the boat would inevitably have been dashed to 
pieces. 

On leaving Lake Champlain on the Canadian boundary. Weld and 
his companions were stopped by a British armed brig of twenty guns, 
stationed in the Richelieu river for the purpose of examining all boats 
passing up or down the lake. This rigid surveillance was maintained at 



406 State of New York 



this time because of the giving up by the British of the several garrisons 
which they had so long held at various points on the frontier. Soon after 
the surrender of the posts to the United States, the brig was removed 
from this police duty at the outlet of Lake Champlain. 

Weld and his companions had various adventures in this part of their 
journey. Their boat was driven ashore on Isle aux Noix, but finally 
getting off, they reached St. John's, 1 50 miles from Skenesborough. 

Weld's record, because of its early date and the graphic fulness of 
its detail, is invaluable. We have no other narrative of the period that 
so well pictures conditions on Lake Champlain. It may be noted in 
this connection that more than a half century after Weld's visit, his 
half-brother, Charles Richard Weld, an English barrister-at-law, passed 
through Lake Champlain in the course of an American tour. His visit 
was at the time of great forest fires in Northern New York, and in the 
book which he afterwards published in London he has given a most vivid 
account of the strange conditions which he experienced on Lake Cham- 
plain when everything was shrouded in a pall of smoke. 

A decade after Weld, Timothy Dwight, the famous early president 
of Yale College, made an extensive tour through New England, in the 
course of which he visited Lake Champlain. In October, 1806, he 
arrived at Chimney Point and crossed the valley to Crown Point, which 
he inspected thoroughly. His four-volume work of *' Travels in New 
England and New York " contains a lengthy account of his observations 
at Crown Point. He found it, notwithstanding its beautiful prospect, " a 
gloomy, melancholy spot. The houses are almost mere hovels, and the few 
beggared inhabitants appear like outcasts from human society. Rags 
and tattered garments, washed and hung out to dry, strongly indicated 
their miserable circumstances. Not a cheerful object, beside the northern 
prospect of tlie lake, and a little verdure thinly dispersed, met the eye. 
A great part of the surface was overspread by ruined fortresses; the 
relics of war and destruction, and the monuments of perfidy, ambition 
and cruelty. TTie opposite shore is to the eye wild and dreary. A 
forest, consisting in a great measure of pines, burned and blasted, spread 



The Champlain Tercentenary 407 



beyond the sight. A decayed and dismal house on Chimney Point was 
the only human habitation in view upon that shore. Beyond the forest 
the Green Mountains in lofty piles of grandeur; inspiring emotions remote 
from cheerfulness, and in such a scene harmonizing only with melancholy 
solemnity. On the west, a chain of hills, unusually ragged and inhospit- 
able, ascends immediately from the lake, forbidding, except in now and 
then a solitary spot, the settlement of man. From their wild and shaggy 
recesses the traveler is warned to expect the approach of the wolf and 
the bear, and from their rugged cliffs, projecting to the water's edge, the 
boatman is taught to look for shipwreck and destruction. 

" The property of this peninsula is in Columbia College. Whether 
the pecuniary profits of the Point will ever reach the college, I doubt; 
and it also appears doubtful whether the literature of the college will 
ever reach the Point." 

At the time of Dr. Dwight's visit there were more than thirty vessels, 
from thirty to seventy tons each, employed on the lake. Furs and peltries 
were still important items of the freight. 

The next really notable visitor whose Champlain sojourn is recorded 
in our literature, was President James Monroe, who passed through the 
valley in the course of his famous tour through the Northern States in 
1817. The President first saw the lake at Burlington, which he reached 
July 23d of the year named. The citizens gave him a handsome escort 
into town and during his visit gathered the whole countryside to welcome 
him and to see and hear him. Leaving Burlington, President Monroe 
traveled by boat to Vergennes, where he examined the iron works. Near 
here was the place where Macdonough's fleet had been built. The War 
of 1812 was still so recent that localities and people associated with 
them held first place in the thoughts of the public. Much was said on 
this tour of Monroe regarding Macdonough's famous victory. At Bur- 
lington it was Daniel Farrand who made the welcoming address, full of 
reminiscences of the war lately ended, especially of the memorable 1 1 th 
of September, 1814. President Monroe arrived at Plattsburgh upon 
the 25th and was shown the various points associated with the great 



408 State of New York 

battle. He continued his tour through Northern New York to Ogdens- 
burgh. He was one of the few Americans whose travels in their own 
country at this time are recorded in books. By far the greater number 
of narratives descriptive of our country in the early decades of the nine- 
teenth century are from the pens of Englishmen or women. Naturally, 
they wrote from their own point of view, tinctured with the prejudices 
that had survived two wars. It is interesting to note that while some of 
these visiting foreigners wrote with undisguised prejudice against the 
Americans and their government, many others appear to have striven for 
a more cordial and friendly attitude. The result in both cases is some- 
times unjust and untrue to conditions; but we owe it to this class of 
literature as a whole that we are able to-day to make a survey of American 
manners and customs, seeing ourselves as others saw us, infinitely better 
than would be the case had we to rely wholly upon the reports of our 
own people. While these observations are true in a general sense, they 
are none the less true as applied to a particular region such as that here 
under notice, or to the inhabitants of it at a given time. 

Two years after President Monroe's tour there passed through the 
Champlain valley an exceptionally brilliant English woman. Miss 
Frances Wright, whose " View of Society and Manners in America,** 
published anonymously in 1 82 1 , proved a theme for discussion and dis- 
pute for many years. This work contains a most interesting chapter 
dated at Plattsburgh in September, 1819. Miss Wright tells at great 
length the story of the battle of Plattsburgh. She also records one of 
the early steamboat tragedies on Lake Champlain, the destruction by fire 
of the famous Phoenix, which disaster had occurred but a few days 
before her visit to the lake. She writes with great enthusiasm of the 
beauty of the mountain scenery, and especially of Burlington and its 
environment. None who would be familiar with the Hterature of the 
Champlain region can afford to ignore her picturesque pages. Mention 
may be made here of the observations of Adam Hodgson who visited 
Lake Champlain in 1 820 and published his ** Letters from North 
America " in London in 1 824. He reached Burlington by steamer from 



The Champlain Tercentenary 409 

the north and left it by stage for Boston after a hurried visit to Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point. His pages are the average tourist's narrative 
with no claim for special attention. 

A unique little book of this period which belongs to Champlain litera- 
ture is entitled "A Pedestrian Tour of Two Thousand and Three Hun- 
dred Miles in North America." This remarkable journey was made in 
the autumn of 1 82 1 by P. Stansbury. Although he was a pedestrian of 
uncommon vigor, he did not confine himself to that mode of travel. Tour- 
ing from Quebec to Boston in October, mostly by boat, he approached 
Lake Champlain from the north. He describes the old fort at Chambly 
and what he calls " the important but ill-built town of St. John's." 
Thence he proceeded to the outlet of the lake, making notes of scenery 
and historical associations. He then took an unusual course across the 
Missisquoi bay, regarding which and the little town of Phillipsburgh he 
writes at some length. Stansbury's book, published in New York in 
1820, is notable for its quaint woodcuts, which were engraved by A. 
Anderson, the first American wood engraver. 

The year after Stansbury's visit, another American, a Mr. Matthews, 
toured through the region, and in 1 823 published, anonymously, a story 
of his journeys under the title "A Summer Month, or Recollections of 
a Visit to the Falls of Niagara," etc. His wanderings brought him to 
Lake Champlain, as had been the case with Stansbury, from the north. 
At Isle aux Noix he found many British vessels " drawn up and put 
under cover in dock, and others remain unfinished, which were commenced 
during the late war." He visited Plattsburgh, which, he says, contains 
" a courthouse, prison and about one hundred dwellings." Like all 
American tourists of that early day, he indulges at length in reflections 
on the battle of Plattsburgh and the gallantry of Macdonough. Cross- 
ing the lake, he makes the usual exclamations over the beauty of Bur- 
lington and its bay. " The college," he says, ** elevated upwards of three 
hundred feet, is at the top of the eminence, and overlooks the town. It 
is a brick building, four stories high, founded In the year 1 791, and there 
are educated annually above forty students. Ascending gradually from 



410 State of New York 

the shore, the neat white edifices, so particularly attractive of the notice 
of a stranger, in the New England States, imposes a beauteous contrast, 
with the surrounding scenery." He continues in this peculiar strain to 
picture the beauties of Burlington at length. The town at this time, he 
says, " contains above two hundred houses and stores, besides two 
churches, the bank, court-house, and gaol. There is a fine, open square 
in the upper part of the town, in which are a few elegant buildings, tavern, 
etc. This same square is still a pleasant spot in Burlington. Later in 
his tour he visited Crown Point and Ticonderoga, proceeding thence to 
Whitehall, en route for Albany. His pages are full of incident and 
minute description of the country as he saw it. 

Another tourist in this same year was Captain Blane, an English officer 
whose " Excursion through the United States and Canada," published 
in 1 824, appeared as having been written by "An English Gentleman." 
Like his predecessor, he reached the lake by way of its outlet, touching 
at Plattsburgh, " a place," he says, " that excites recollections of rather 
an unpleasant kind in the mind of an Englishman; " proceeding to 
Burlington, where the prospect of the bay reminded him of the Lake of 
Geneva as seen from Lausanne. " Indeed," he adds, " as is the case 
with the Alps, the fine and picturesque chain of the Alleghanies increases 
in size towards the upper extremity of the lake and decreases towards the 
lower extremity. I shall, however, destroy the sublimity of this Alpine 
comparison, if I remark, that on looking up Lake Champlain there is 
an island, which from its small size and conical shape has the appearance 
of a floating hay-cock." 

The chief value of Captain Blane's notes on the region lies in his 
discussion of Sir George Prevost's defeat and retreat at Plattsburgh. 
'* Never, perhaps," he says, " was there exhibited a greater instance of 
military incapacity and mismanagement, than in this expedition." 

In the memorable year of 1 825 came General Lafayette. He reached 
Burlington on June 28th, where he was given a most enthusiastic recep- 
tion, with the usual accompaniment of speeches and a dinner. He then 
shared in the laying of a cornerstone of a new building for the college. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 41 1 

now the University of Vermont. In the narrative of Lafayette's Ameri- 
can travels, written by his secretary. Mens. A. Levasseur, it is recorded: 
" The ceremony of laying the cornerstone was performed in the presence 
of the students of the college, their professors, the magistrates of the 
town, and a great number of citizens, who joyfully saw the restoration 
and aggrandizement of an establishment destined daily to insure more and 
more the maintenance of their wise institutions, by instructing and enlight- 
ening their young generations. Mr. Willard Preston, president of the 
institution, thanked General Lafayette for the proof of interest he had 
just given in the education of the youth of Vermont; and we went to 
the house of Governor Van Ness, whose charming residence and gardens, 
arranged with exquisite taste, were still further delightfully embellished 
by a large assemblage of ladies, who, during the whole evening, disputed 
for the pleasure of approaching the guest of the nation, to express to him 
their friendly sentiments, and their gratitude for the services he had 
rendered their country and their fathers : for in Vermont, as in all the rest 
of the Union, the females are not strangers either to the principles of the 
government, or to the obligations which patriotism confers." 

The author-secretary was obviously very much impressed, for he 
continues in this strain at length. General Lafayette and escort left Bur- 
lington about midnight on the two famous old steamboats, the Phoenix and 
the Congress. Both were illuminated and decorated with flags and 
transparencies, and as they steamed out of the bay the people bade him 
good-bye with a salute of thirteen guns. 

No book-writing tourist is known to have visited Lake Champlain the 
year after Lafayette, but in 1 827 came at least two British authors. One 
of them, signing himself "A British Subject," published a thin volume 
of his American wanderings, in which he describes his visit to the Cham- 
plain region in July of the year named. He also came by steamboat from 
Canada into the lake, an effective and interesting approach which the 
modern tourist rarely has an opportunity to make. Our Briton records 
that for his passage through the lake, from St. John's to Whitehall, a 
trip requiring twenty-four hours, he was charged 25 shillings, which 



412 State of New York 

covered the cost of transportation, berth and three meals. He speaks of 
the serviae as excellent, a note of praise often lacking in the comments of 
British visitors. Besides the usual description of the scenes as they 
unfolded on his journey southward, he took note of the influx of emigrants 
by that route from Canada. " The boat," he says, " was crammed with 
them," and he was told that such was usually the case, so many of the 
poor, especially the Irish, were at that time leaving Canada for New 
York, where they sought to re-embark for Ireland. Of the events of 
the War of 1812, and especially of Sir George Prevost, our author 
writes at length and in a less partisan way than was to be expected from 
an Englishman at that time. Of the prospect at the southern end of the 
lake, he grows enthusiastic. " It was," he says, " the most lovely scene 
I had witnessed on my tour." 

At about the same time of this anonymous author's visit, came Captain 
Basil Hall of the British Royal Navy, whose three-volume work, 
" Travels in North America," published at Edinburgh in 1 829, is one 
of the best known, and in its way most useful records of American institu- 
tions at that period. Captain Hall noted the same tide of emigration 
that his compatriots had. Coming to Lake Champlain also from the 
north, September 7th, ** our route," he says, " lay along Lake Champlain 
in a very crowded steamboat, filled with tourists and a large party of 
Irish emigrants, who, for reasons best known to themselves, had chosen not 
to settle in the Canadas but to wander farther south in quest of fortune." 
The Captain's sympathies were aroused by the condition of some of 
these emigrants, of whom he writes some picturesque pages. 

No one has given us better than he a vivid account of the conditions 
of travel on the Champlain steamers at that time. He dwells upon the 
crowds, the noise, the confusion, the utter impossibility for privacy or rest, 
making the reader fairly share the annoyance and fatigue which finally 
drove him from the cabin to the deck where he tried to while away the 
rest of an exhausting night. Here, however, he found little respite. " The 
atmosphere," he writes, " was filled with a muggy sort of red haze or 
smoke, arising, I was told, from the forest fire, which gave a ghastly 



The ChamplaIxN Tercentenary 413 

appearance to the villages and trees, seen through such a choky medium. 
On one occasion only, when this mist cleared off a httle, I was much struck 
with the appearance of a town near us, and I asked an American gentle- 
man what place it was. *Oh! don't you know? That is Plattsburgh 
— and there is the very spot where our Commodore Macdonough 
defeated the English squadron ' — I went to bed again." The Captain, 
like many of his countrymen, had little relish for American bragging 
and did not hesitate to speak his mind about it. 

In 1 828 came an acute, observant, note-taking Scotchman, James 
Stuart, whose " Three Years in North America " is one of the justly 
esteemed and well-known books of travel. Stuart's entrance to the lake, 
like several of the others we have noted, was by the old highway from 
the north. In the latter part of September he sailed from St. John's 
to Whitehall on the steamboat Franklin. His account is of particular 
interest in that he found conditions very agreeable, the service good and 
the officials with whom he came in contact polite. Of the boat journey 
he says: "The provisions were excellent, and here as in every place 
where we have yet been in the United States places were left for us at the 
head of the table on account of our being foreigners. I noticed this 
particularly on this occasion because there were several persons of 
eminence in the boat, part of the family of the Attorney-General of the 
United States and several clergymen." He even has a good word for 
the custom house officer who examined his baggage, but, he says, did 
not require it to be opened. On his journey through the lake he was 
told the story of the burning of the Phoenix, the bravery shown in that 
tragedy affording him another opportunity for pleasant and appreciative 
words. Stuart's pages contain a great deal of Champlain valley history. 
He was writing for a large audience and lost no opportunity to record 
whatever he thought might add to the fulness and value of his narrative. 
One is struck on turning his pages with his fortune everywhere in finding 
agreeable people and pleasant prospects. One feels that he himself must 
have been an agreeable sort of traveling companion. 



414 State of New York 



A little later, in 1 83 1 , came Godfrey T. Vigne, an English barrister- 
at-law, of Lincoln's Inn, a light and jaunty writer, who hurried over 
much ground during his brief American sojourn and recorded his observa- 
tions in two agreeable volumes entitled " Six Months in America." He 
says that he " traveled with note-book, sketch-book, gun and fishing rod, 
alone, unbewifed and unbevehicled, as a man ought to travel." He was 
something of a sportsman and something of an artist, and while his book 
records nothing new of the Champlain valley, it gives pleasant pictures 
of familiar scenes as they appeared to a naturalist and a sportsman. 

Very different is the record we get from the next tourist, whose visit 
is recorded in the books. This was the Rev. Andrew Reed, a Doctor 
of Divinity, who, with the Rev. James Matheson, was a deputation from 
the Congregational Union of England and Wales to visit the American 
churches. In pursuit of this duty these reverend gentlemen journeyed 
together to Lake Champlain in June, 1834, but, naturally, they took 
more note of the moral and religious status of the communities through 
which they passed than of the more material things of the present or 
the records of the past. Mr. Reed found himself at Burlington on a 
*' Sabbath eve," and while he was not insensible to the beauty of the 
landscape, he was more moved by the rowdyism of the streets which 
disturbed his quiet and shocked his sense of propriety. He pursued 
his journey by steamer through the lake to St. John's. 

Another traveler this year was the Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, 
whose elaborate volumes of American travels, published in London in 
1 839, were dedicated to Queen Victoria. He gives a brief account of 
his visit to Lake Champlain, coming to it through the wilderness from 
Ogdensburg, a most unusual route at that day. He drove, he says, 
for one hundred and fifty miles through the " most wild and uncultivated 
country " he had ever seen, to Plattsburgh, and he adds some pages 
devoted to the loneliness of the forest, the wretchedness of the roads and 
the general dreariness of American scenery. At Burlington, however, 
he came under the inevitable spell which no traveler resists who sees 
that fair bay set with islands and framed in hills under favorable con- 



The Champlain Tercentenary 415 

ditions of season and of sun light. He writes of it as one might write of 
Como or Lugano. " The view of the lake with its promontories and 
woody islands, bounded by a distant range of blue mountains, is as lovely 
as the eye of a Claude or a Poussin could desire." At the little college 
he was surprised to find three Germans who had come thither from 
Gottingen to study the English language. " Is there nothing in this," 
he asks, " to rouse the attention of Oxford, Cambridge, London, Edin- 
burgh, that three young men desirous of learning English should find it 
expedient from reasons of economy or other facilities, to travel between 
four and five thousand miles to a remote town in the interior of North 
America?" The Hon. Mr. Murray continued his journey by driving 
across New England to Boston. 

In the late summer of 1832 there passed through Lake Champlain 
one Captain Hamilton, the author of " Men and Manners in America," 
" Cyril Thornton," and other works, both travel and fiction. The first 
named work, published at Edinburgh in 1833, records his Champlain 
visit. His narrative offers nothing not already noted in the work of his 
predecessors. It is interesting to find, however, that he joins with most 
of the British tourists of that period in dwelling at some length upon the 
disastrous rout of Prevost. Writing of Plattsburgh, he says: "The 
historian who would illustrate by facts the almost incredible amount of 
folly, ignorance, and imbecility, by which the arms of England may be 
tarnished, and her resources wasted with impunity, should bestow a care- 
ful examination on the details of the Plattsburgh expedition. He will 
then precisely understand how war can be turned into child's play, and 
its operations regulated, as in the royal game of Goose, by the twirl of a 
teetotum." 

Our next tourist is no British officer, but a Massachusetts woman, 
Caroline H. Oilman, whose cleverness as a writer of both verse and 
prose made her widely popular in the decades preceding the Civil War. 
In the summer of 1836 she visited our lake, afterwards recording her 
impressions in her popular volume " Poetry of Travel in the United 
States." Writing from Burlington she gives us the following memoranda 



416 State of New York 

regarding the boat service at that period : " We left Montreal in the 
steamer Princess Victoria for St. John's, and from thence the fine steam- 
boat Franklin, for Lake Champlain. I have seen nothing either in boats 
or hotels to compare with the elegance and neatness of this boat. Among 
other matters of taste are excellent waiters, handsome youths in uniform 
with stylish caps from which a silk tassel depends, and in the purest 
white aprons and jackets. This is altogether a most exquisite sail. 
Plattsburgh, on the west side of the lake, is a handsome village, and one 
looks with interest on Macdonough's farm, consisting of one hundred 
acres, which was granted him by the Legislature of Vermont." She 
adds a poem on Plattsburgh and gives to her notes on the region the 
touch of grace and genial humor which characterizes her work and won 
her a wide popularity. 

Whatever the nationality or point of view of the tourist, or however 
bitterly he may have written regarding Americans or the recent military 
strife on the lake, he was sure to have a good word for Burlington. That 
pleasant town could well afford to compile all that has been said of it 
by visitors, from its establishment to date. The only drawback to such 
a collection would be the monotony of praise. A British traveler of 
some note, the Quaker, Joseph John Gurney, who toured America in 
1840, described the scenes and people he met with in a long series of 
familiar letters to Amelia Opie, an English novelist and poet, who had 
joined the Society of Friends. In his visit to Lake Champlain he was 
entertained by a family of the Society of Friends, from whom, no doubt, 
he gained certain impressions which led him to generalize on the people 
of the region. " The people of Vermont," he writes, *' are in general 
much opposed to slavery. I was ready to think, as I passed along amongst 
them, that they were the better, body and soul, for their retirement from 
the world, and for the remarkably pure air which it is their lot to breathe." 
He writes in the usual laudatory vein of Burlington and its surrounding 
scenery. " The lake at this spot," he says, " struck me as singularly 
like that of the lakes of Cumberland, particularly Derwentwater." On a 
Sunday, at Burlington, he shared with other friends in morning worship 



The Champlain Tercentenary 417 

at the hotel; in the afternoon he visited the Methodist meeting-house; 
later on drank tea with Dr: Wheeler, the president of the college; met 
Prof. Marsh and others prominent in the early history of that institution, 
and at night was routed out of his bed by a fire which destroyed a portion 
of his hotel. From Burlington he drove to St. Albans, along the east 
bank of the lake, and continued thence into Canada. 

The next year, 1842, came John Robert Godley, also an Englishman, 
who dates two chapters of his two-volume " Letters from America," at 
Isle aux Noix. In them he discusses many phases of Canadian and 
American life, speaks of hunting in the vicinity of Lake Champlain, and 
describes a visit to Missisquoi bay. He passed through the lake by 
steamer from south to north. His boat was the Burlington, which he 
says had *' a crew of forty-two men and all her operations, such as 
lowering boats, etc., were conducted with a rapidity and precision of a 
man-of-war." " The steamers on Lake Champlain are preeminent 
among American lake and river boats for regularity, speed and accom- 
modations, and having thereby succeeded in deterring the opposition 
which everywhere else keeps down profits to the minimum point, pay 
better than those of any other company." At Ticonderoga, he thought 
that the remains of the fort and surrounding area formed a good fore- 
ground to one of the most beautiful views which he had seen in America. 
Plattsburgh inspired him to write the usual pages of military discussion 
and to reach the following unusual suggestion: ** The effective plan for 
injuring the United States would, of course, be to land an army of free 
negroes in the South, and proclaim liberty to the slaves." British states- 
manship might have found many novel ideas in the pages of this diverting 
writer who seems to have taken himself very seriously. 

It is refreshing to turn from Godley to such a cheerful free-lance as 
Augustus E. Silliman, brother to the more famous Benjamin Silliman. 
This young man, in 1843, made a wide American tour which he calls 
*'A Gallop Among American Scenery, or Sketches of American Scenes 
and Military Adventure." Passing through the Champlain country, he 
writes of it almost wholly without exact data, his pages unburdened by 
28 



418 State of New York 



the etforts to record facts, and yet breezy and attractive in their pen 
pictures of scenery and incident. 

The reader may be reminded that all of these travelers came to the 
valley before the railroad era; some by coach, some on horseback, most 
of them by steamer. According to a statistical work of 1844, Holley's 
"American Tourist," there were that year three passenger steamers, the 
Burlington, the WhiiehalU and the Saranac, regularly running from 
Whitehall to St. John's. These boats were celebrated for the discipline 
observed on board and for the comfort and thoroughness of their pass- 
enger arrangements. The cabin passage for the trip at that date was 
$3.00. There were two shipyards at Whitehall and two dry-docks. 
Two steamboats were employed on the lake for towing, and the freight 
business was largely carried on by more than fifty sloops and schooners, 
varying from fifty to one hundred tons each, and by some seventy canal 
boats. Through the Champlain canal in the 40's two daily lines of 
packets were operated to Troy and Albany, and there were two lines 
of stages reaching the lake from the south. 

We may properly include in our list one of the best beloved American 
poets, William Cullen Bryant, whose account of the tour which brought 
him to Lake Champlain in July, 1843, is to be found in the once popular 
volume, " Letters of a Traveler." Mr. Bryant came to the lake by 
way of the Champlain canal, not a common method of approach for 
book-writing tourists. He writes as only a poet could of the beauties of 
that canal and its junction with the lake. From Whitehall he journeyed 
by wagon easterly through Vermont, so that he really came scarcely in 
touch with the typical Champlain life. 

A little later than this period, we find an interesting personal narrative 
by James Dixon, a Methodist Doctor of Divinity from England, who, 
in June of 1 848, came from Montreal up the Richelieu, noting the small 
fort at the boundary, and passing through the lake to Whitehall. Of the 
scenic picture which unfolded before him as he sailed south from Platts- 
burgh, he writes a most extraordinary panegyric : " The scene was the 
most beautifully romantic which nature can possibly present: A blue 



The Champlain Tercentenary 419 



sky, deep, lofty, stretching its heavenly arch to span the landscape, the 
sun setting in all his gorgeous glory, the lake smooth as glass, except as 
disturbed by our motion, wild fowl fluttering about and enjoying the cool 
evening, the majestic mountains of Vermont looming in the distance, and 
all the intermediate space filled with cultivated fields and towering forests 
— and then the lonely little town of Plattsburgh, touching the fringe 
of the lake, and presenting the most perfect aspect of rural peace and 
quiet on which the eye ever gazed. My manliness was here for the first 
time overcome; I longed and longed to get on shore, to fix my tent, and 
remain forever. This sentiment was new; I had never before felt any 
remarkable desire to locate in any place I had seen; but here, for a 
moment, I was perfectly overcome. Other affections, of course, soon 
sprang up, and wafted my soul across the Atlantic, where treasures dearer 
than even these beauties had their dwelling. During this little paroxysm, 
delirium, or whatever it may be called, my kind companion. Dr. Richey. 
had retired to his cabin, so that one of my wants could not be relieved — 
a vent for exclamations of delight ! This was just one of those moments 
which can never be forgotten, an Eden, a paradisiacal scene, into which 
none can enter with one, and which leaves its picture vividly penciled on 
the soul. But how soon things change, and in their reality fade away! 
We left this spot, passed on, the night closed in, the curtain dropped." 

Among the poets, the preachers, and the soldiers, who seem to have 
written most of the travel books we are noting, the soldiers perhaps pre- 
dominate, and certainly wrote the liveliest and most useful books. The 
year after the Rev. Dr. Dixon's visit, there came Major John Thornton, 
who kept a diary of his tour which he published in 1850, in London. 
We find him, in September, *49, embarking at St. John's for the Cham- 
plain voyage. He took note of his traveling companions, many of them 
habitans, and the village priests of lower Canada, who, to this day, are 
sure to attract the attention of the visitor to the region, especially if he 
come from the States. Major TTiornton thought it worthy of remark 
" that the Americans choose fine, active, well-dressed young men as com- 
manders of steamboats, pursers, check takers in railway cars, and such like 



420 State of New York 

posts. They are the elite of the American youth of their class and their 
ostensible aspect is a good introduction and gives the public confidence." 
He says less of Burlington than is usual, but remembers Westport, across 
the lake, " a beautiful locality, very inviting to halt at," and he adds: 
** Off Split Rock, the captain, a well-dressed, genteel-looking man, w^ear- 
ing an immense diamond brooch, assured me the lake was 1,000 feet 
deep." After inspecting Ticonderoga, he journeyed to Lake George by 
stage. His little book is not a very serious work, but presents a better 
picture of the regions visited than is offered in many a work of weight 
and gravity. 

In August, 1852, Lake Champlain was visited by Edmund Patten, 
a Londoner, who published, the next year, "A Glimpse at the United 
States and the Northern States of America," etc. His not very valuable 
pages are, however, pretty full of what he saw on the lake. He was sur- 
prised not to find the American flag floating over the ruins of Ticonderoga, 
*' with an cirtilleryman or two to guard the sacred spot. Congress, how- 
ever, do^s not waste dollars on matters of effect, merely; little romance 
is to be found in these go-ahead people." Misinformation leads him into 
many amusing blunders. At Burlington he thought the *' hotels very 
inferior and the attendance execrable." He says he was glad to escape 
from the town and as he journeyed northward by steam took note of the 
country people at the landings, and he was " glad to notice a general 
appearance of well-doing, and the absence of poverty and misery. Here 
there are no beggars to importune or annoy you." He mentions the 
islands which give such variety and beauty to the northern end of the 
lake, and quotes poetry to relieve his feelings, so stirred are they by the 
beauty which unfolds before him as he sails. The poetry ends, however, 
on coming to Rouse's Point, near the boundary line, where he was much 
disturbed by the noise and confusion incident to the meeting of boats 
and railway — for by this time the railway had reached the Champlain 
valley. " Here," he says, *' the Yankee is in his glory, although the con- 
fusion and noise beat even that of Broadway, in New York." The 
*' weary traveler had litde chance of a night's rest, surrounded, as he is. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 421 

by the hissing of engines both from steam and rail, the noises of cranes 
and the bustle of hundreds of passengers with their heavy luggage.** 
Passing through the customs examination he is moved to observe: " Your 
luggage or merchandise is inspected, and anything coming under the 
tariff laws, chargeable with duty, at once arranged, the packages properly 
ticketed, and given in charge to the luggage-van authorities, so that all 
further interruption is avoided, and in passing from one country to the 
other, there is, indeed, at first, very little difference observable. In all 
steamboat or railway traveling, the Yankees have brought the arrange- 
ments to great perfection, especially as regards the simplicity of the rail 
carriages, the fares, the extraordinary cheapness, and the speed of river 
boats, which is almost equal to that of the rail. It cannot, however, be 
denied that this mode of transit has its drawbacks, and is occasionally 
attended with awful loss of life, more particularly by the river boats," and 
he cites the recent loss of the Henr^ Cla}) and of the Reindeer on the 
Hudson, and a third steamboat disaster on Lake Ontario. 

A more renowned traveler, Alexander Marjoribanks, whose " Travels 
in New Zealand,'* *' Australia," etc., some readers will recall, came to 
Lake Champlain in this same summer of 1852, reaching BurHngton by 
train, where he made a short sojourn. He remarks that the view of the 
lake from that town ** is not unlike that from the beautiful seat of my 
esteemed friend, David Bell, Esq., of Craigmore, in the island of Bute, 
and of Blackball, in the county of Lanark, looking across the Frith of 
Clyde towards Largs and the adjacent district of Ayrshire." The nar- 
rative of this visit is to be found in his " Travels in South and North 
America," printed in London, 1853. 

The latter half of the 19th century has not, apparently, been so pro- 
lific in books written by British globe-trotters as were the earlier decades. 
The tourist to-day, especially the English tourist, is more tempted by the 
regions farther west, and it is probable that a survey of this class of 
literature would show a present-day production of descriptive volumes 
relating to Canada, the Northwest and the Pacific coast, corresponding 
to the books of the earlier years which are largely devoted to the eastern 



422 State of New York 

United States. There is also a signal hiatus in the production of Ameri- 
can travel during the period of the Civil War and for some years there- 
after. One or two British and French war correspondents lingered in 
American after the end of hostilities and recorded their impressions in 
more or less valuable volumes. But the popular resorts and scenic 
attractions of the East no longer receive the elaborate treatment from 
travelers who wrote books that they did in the first half of the last century. 

There are, of course, now and then works which touch the Champlain 
region of a later date than those mentioned. Note may be made of the 
impressions of Julius George Medley, lieutenant-colonel of British Royal 
Engineers, a Fellow of the University of Calcutta, etc., whose book, **An 
Autumn Tour in the United States and Canada," was published in 
London in 1873. He came from Lake George in the fall of '72 by 
stage to Ticonderoga, " a ride," he says, " over an abominable road." 
He found the scenery of Lake Champlain inferior to that of the smaller 
lake and dismisses the region with a few indifferent sentences. Of much 
the same character is the volume entitled " Notes of a Tour in America," 
made in 1 877, by H. Hussey Vivian, Member of Parliament, Fellow of 
the Geographical Society, and, no doubt, much else. His hurried Ameri- 
can tour, from August to November, is recorded in a volume which no 
doubt gave satisfaction to his personal friends, but contains little likely 
to prove useful to the student of American development. 

These notes might be much extended by reference to works of travel 
relating to the Champlain region published in languages other than 
English. Numerous French writers have visited the lake in the course 
of their American touring and briefly recorded their impressions. 

An interesting group of books in German might readily be brought 
together, some of them of sufficient importance to be mentioned here. 

One of the earliest in this language narrates the American travels of 
Bernhardt, Duke of Sachsen- Weimar-Eisenach, published at Weimar, 
1828. The Duke visited Lake Champlain in September, 1825, about 
the time of Lafayette's visit, before mentioned. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 423 



Coming from Montreal, he embarked at St. John's on the new steamer 
Phoenix, the second Lake Champlain boat bearing that name. He 
devotes a long chapter to the military establishment and fortifications on 
Isle aux Noix, and gives a sketch of the style of earthworks which he 
found there. He passed on through the lake to its southern end and 
thence to Lake George, and writes with much detail of all the more 
important places along its shores. 

Another German tourist whose work deserves attention was J. G. 
Kohl, an account of whose travels in Canada and the United States was 
published in Stuttgart in 1856. He devotes an interesting chapter to 
Burlington and another to the " See Champlain," over which he jour- 
neyed northward, taking note of all the natural features of the landscape, 
of his companions in travel, the manners and customs house officials, and 
everything else which could illuminate his picture of American life. 

The works of travel above mentioned chiefly relate to the Champlain 
valley in the first half of the 19th century. Even for that period the 
list might be much extended in English as well as in foreign tongues. 
The purpose of the review has, however, been attained. It was to show 
how the works of these tourists offer glimpses of the exact state of things 
as they saw them at the moment of their visit, glimpses often more vivid 
and more illuminating to the historian than are to be gained through any 
other records. Whoever writes the definitive history of the Champlain 
valley cannot afford to ignore the aid of these sources. 

The interest awakened in the Champlain valley is evidenced in the 
annual exercises of the Lake Champlain Association, of which Hon. 
Chester B. McLaughlin was President in 1910. and Hon. D. P. Kings- 
ley is now President, comprising several hundred members, who have at 
some time resided in the valley and who make an annual tour to some 
of its historical places. 

The tvvelfth annual meeting of the New York Historical Associa- 
tion, of which the Honorable James A. Roberts is President, was held 
on the steamer Vermont, touching at the historical points about the lake 



424 State of New York 

from October 4th to 6th, 1910, and the principal addresses on that occa- 
sion related to some of the important phases of Lake Champlain history. 
The significance of all such exercises as these and such celebrations as 
the Lake Champlain Tercentenary becomes more apparent to all who 
reflect upon the dictum of the philosopher, Hegel, that " History is 
always of great importance for a people; since by means of that, it 
becomes conscious of the path of development taken by its own spirit, 
which expresses itself in laws, manners, customs and deeds.'* 




V. ^. 





rruv 




\M ■> 




Publishid l.y courtesy of tliu Vermont ('ommission 
Scenes from Indian pcigeants 




Scenes irom Indian pageants 






Scenes from Indian pageants 



LIBRETTO OF THE PLAY OF HIAWATHA 

(As given at several points on Lake Champlain, July 5-9, 1909. Printed here by courtesy 
of the proprietors, Messrs. W. D. Lighthall and L. O. Armstrong.) 

425 



THE BOOK OF THE PLAY OF "HIAWATHA. THE 
MOHAWK," DEPICTING THE SIEGE OF HOCHE- 
LAGA AND THE BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN 



[Prefatory Note. — The success of Mr. L. O. Armstrong for several years 
with his famous Indian dramatic representation of " Hiawatha, the Ojibway," the 
equal success of his Indian contingent at the great Quebec Tercentenary of 1908, 
brought about his still larger undertaking for an Indian Pageant for the Lake 
Champlain Tercentenary. 

The history of the Lake and of all the Northern States opens with Samuel 
Champlain's fight with the Iroquois here in 1 609. It is now known that their 
presence on Lake Champlain was a result of their having been driven out by the 
Hurons and Algonquins from Hochelaga (Montreal) and Stadacona (Quebec) 
where Jacques Cartier had found them dwelling in 1535. The history of their 
romantic wars and of the founding of their remarkable League by Hiawatha is told 
in W. D. Lighthall's recent '* Romance of the Five Nations and of Prehistoric Mon- 
treal," entitled, " The Master of Life," which Mr. Armstrong has used as the basis 
of the Pageant in leading us to the historic battle of Lake Champlain. 

The Indian players are drawn from the reservations at Caughnawaga, St. Francis, 
Oka in Quebec and from Brantford, Garden River, St. Regis in Ontario, and from 
Onondaga, N. Y. In the cast. Scar Face is a direct descendant of Eunice Wil- 
liams captured at Deerfield in 1 704. While very little white blood remains in 
him, that little has a distinctly New England atmosphere. 

In the depiction, the ancient arts, customs and dress have been studied.] 



427 



428 



State of New York 



Pipe of Peace. 
Awilharoa. 



HIAWATHA. THE MOHAWK 

Friendly meeting for trade of Hochelagas and Algonquins at 
Tiotiake (Montreal). 

Scene I 

A fire is solemnly lit. The Peace Pipe is presented to the 
leaders of all tribes. Awitharoa, the great Peace Chief of the 
Hochelaga nation (later one of the tribes of the Iroquois con- 
federacy) talks of past and present friendship, with the hope of 
long continuing a peace which is so profitable to all nations. 



Indians against stag 
in a race and a 
canoe race between 
Algonquins and 
Ojibways. 



Wampum belt of 
bark. 



Gives belts. 



Gives tobacco 



Maize. 



Black Stone 
Amulets. 



The Algonquin champion, " The Black Wolverine," and the 
Hochelaga champion, Hiawatha, race together in running down a 
stag. A canoe race is arranged while waiting for the result of 
the race with the deer. After canoe race, Awitharoa says, 
Algonquins — Hochelagas — our fathers met yours on this island 
before the memory of any of the living. Here were always seen 
the Hochelaga Bear and the Algonquin Rabbit — the totems of 
friends. The great pine tree under which our forefathers and we 
ourselves met has gone, but that we may continue close friends I 
give to each of your chiefs a wampum belt pictured with a pine 
tree. 

(Hoh! Hoh! Algonquins.) That you may forget your ills 
and have incense for sacrifice to the Manitou I give you this 
tobacco (asogun) raised not by women but by our warriors. 

Here is maize. May the demon of want never come near your 
wigwam. 

For your protection I give you these amulets of black stone; 
they will drive away Windigos and all evil things. 

People of the Northern Lights — Algonquins, my nation — 
the Hochelagas and yours are one house. Whenever you are 
hungry come into our wigwams and sit down by the fires; our 
women will bring you corn; they will spread your mats; we will 
pass you the pipe. 



(Algonquins, Hoh! Hoh!) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



429 



Nikona (of the Algonquins) patriarch (says), Our people Nikona, the Algon- 
have no crops — no crafts. We are not as yours, we can make ">"'"• 'P"*"" 
paHsades and houses and amulets: ye are a wonderful nation, but 
our northern country is full of moose and wapiti. I give you these q ,■ 
skins for leggings and moccasins, which your women will make 
and decorate beautifully. Here is a hill of skins. Here are bags 
of war paint. Here are strings of shell wampum. Say to your- Shell wampum, 
selves, what is more beautiful than the peace which they repre- 
sent. And to thee, Awitharoa, I give this axe of sharp green Gives copper axe. 
copper. It is full of magic for the cutting of trees and slaying of 
foes. 



Hoh! Hoh! Hee a hee ee hoh. 

(The runners! The runners! Iroquois.) 

Hiawatha and the Wolverine appear on the other side. The 
race is ended. Hiawatha is the victor. Hiawatha come to the 
Council. Ho. Ho. 



Description of end 
of race. 



Hiawatha appears 
with deer on his 
■shoulder. 



Arvitharoa. 

Hiawatha, I crown you the swiftest of warriors. Next year. 
Algonquins, it may be your turn to win. We are proud of 
Hiawatha this year. Give me the red feather. Here Hiawatha. Red 
You are a chief and will sit in all Councils. At the CORN FEAST 
to-morrow you shall light the sacred fire. 

(Haul up front curtain. Arrange corn scene.) 



feather. 



Scene II 

Arvitharoa. 

What is the custom, O grandmother? 

KaTpi. 

Ye shall choose the most beautiful, our ancestors said. 

Kwenhia appears 
Kaivi. 

Yea, verily she is Adohasu, the beautiful maiden. 
Amitharoa. 

Thou art Oslzi, the spirit of maize — the daughter of the Sun. 

(Dressing of Kwenhia. See Book, The Master of Life.) 5^"*'".8 "^ 

■' K-wenhia. 



Com Feast. 



Kwenhia, the Com 
Maiden. 



430 State of New York 



Hiawatha lights the sacred fire. 

Awitharoa. 

O! Host of the warrior dead! Accept our thanks. 
Invocation. Our Ancestors. Continue to Hsten! O Red Chief of men and 

spirits, we offer thee the pipe of peace. 

Medicine men with (The three maidens have disappeared.) 

masks come and 

dance. (The Council assembles — The Mystery Men.) 

Hatiria. 
,, ... ,, Listen. Listen, daughters of the sun. Maize-maiden! Bean- 

Halma s call. o i • i 

maiden! Squash maiden! appear. LISTEN. 

O, Three come forth. 
Keep watch. 
Let us worship. 

(Black Wolverine and five hunters appear with Ojibway 
feathers.) 

Arviiharoa. 

Black Wolverine and Warriors — Welcome. 

Black Wolverine. 

Your runner, Hiawatha, beat me in the race, but we think we 
are better hunters than your people. We challenge Hiawatha 
and five of your hunters to hunt bear at the Lake of the Two 
Mountains against myself and these five Algonquins. 

Hiaivatha. 
Preparations go on Black Wolverine, I accept the challenge. Will you be our 
for Corn Festival, guests? Our Women will cook for you and a new lodge will be 

prepared for you to sleep in. Our young men and maidens will 

sing to you. Join in our corn festival. 

The Three Maidens Appear 

Old Woman. 

They are the most beautiful ever chosen. 

(Background of corn and heaps of corn.) 

(Painted corn scenes.) (Corn song and grinding.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 431 



Au>itharoa. 

Hiawatha! Hochelega's is a happy people. Hiawatha and 

Hiawatha sits at the door of his mother's and great grand- Sioro^flirir's 

mother's house. Kawi. Woman cooking. lodge. They speak 

together about 
Onala to Kwenhia. Hiawatha's future. 

My child, sit down here; you don't eat with us often enough. 
Kahafi^L 

The custom of the mothers is the men before the women; the 
guests before the household; old before young. 

Kivenhia to Hiatvatha. 

Where is your caribou skin? How does it feel to be a chief? 

Onaia. 

The skin is soaking in the water, I am making him a shirt of it. 
Krvenh'ia. 

Let me come and decorate it with you. I will put on a figure 
of a man with a long feather. 

Kaivi. 

Wait! the slayer must say the invocation. 
Hiarvatha (prays). 

O stag, bear me no ill will for slaying thee ; it was for the glory 
of my tribe. Graze in endless peace with thy people in the forest 
of the land of souls. 

K'wenh'ia. 

When you are a great chief. Hiawatha, when you walk sternly 
among the warriors, do not forget your little sister Kwenhia. 
When I saw you go up to the Council place this morning, it 
seemed as if I had lost my brother. 

Hia'Waiha. 

Fear not. my little one. Let us go and sit at the lake side and 
listen to the voice of the night. 

(Algonquins are invited into the long houses and with others 
disappear. A hidden choir sing softly the Caughnawaga song 
[Konoronkwa] and others.) 



432 State of New York 

Kwenhia. 

What art thou saying to thyself? 

Hiaivatha. 

Ha! Ha! I was thinking how pleasant are swift hunting and 
racing and archery and listening to the adventures of renowned 
chiefs ; but more than all how the greatest joy would be war. We 
of the Sacred Island, Tiotiake, are dishonored for want of 
enemies; we do not fight enough, it is always peace, peace. In 
the spring I will give a feast to the young men, and call on them 
to follow me to Stadacona. and there we will form a war party. 
In that way I shall bring honor upon our tribe, the mother and 
leader of the MEN OF MEN, the Hochelagas. 

Kivenhia. 

But, Hiawatha, will not the enemy come in return and kill 
some of us? 

HiaHfatha. 

They will come, they will lie in wait for us among the islands 
and reeds, and along the paths of the woods, even up to the wall 
of the town. They will slay here and there some of our braves, 
but then we shall hunt them again and bring home the long scalps 
and the trophies. They shall be hung UPON THE POLES BEFORE 
OUR LODGES, and the fires shall shine upon warriors telling of 
glorious deeds, and we shall be indeed MEN OF MEN. 

Kivenh'ia. 

Thy thoughts are the thoughts of the mountain, but I am only 
the little sumach; I hear the wailing of the women; the widows 
are many; the mothers have blackened their faces, and the virgins 
fear to go into the corn fields. 

Hiamatha. 

Warriors must endure these things; to be men is first before all. 

Kwenhia. 

And what if the enemy should kill thee also in the woods or 
among the reeds? 

Hiawatha. 
Moose looks on. Then the mother of Hiawatha will not be ashamed. 




S.N 






A PLAN of. 
• TOWN 'ii^ FORT of 

CARILLON 

at 

TICO^DEROGA; 

Tfjih 
die ATTACK luatlel^ tLe 

BKiTisirAnMY 

Comm/iMjfdby GenfA6ercrom6i(. 

Hjii/yljja. 

Engmveil bv 

TAo.'Jrj/en/s. Geoymp/ier/o/iijRcyalBiy/t/uf' lAi 

PBlNCEot-WALKS. 






The Champlain Tercentenary 433 



Kfifenhia. 

She hath but thee. 

Hiawatha. 

Yes ... me only. 

Kwenhia. (Takes a silver cross out of her breast and holds it up.) 
Tall brother, the spirits, my people, whisper to me, " Peace." 
My Father, the Spirit, when he gave me this, taught my Mother 
that the Master of Life hateth war; that his Son is Chief of 
Peace ; and that when wounded he smote not back but was nailed 
to the stake. That is like that one the white ghosts placed upon 
the mountain top. 

Hiatifatha. 

How could so mighty a chief endure such shame? 

Knfenhia. 

It is the teaching of the Spirits. 

Hiawatha. 

The wisdom of the Spirits is wonderful. 

Kmenhia. 

If I ask for something wilt thou give it? 

Hiawatha. 

Have I ever refused thee anything? 

Kwenhia. 

A white bead then from thy belt. 

Hiawatha. (Jumping up.) 
Ah, listen. 

Kwenhia. 
A ghost. 

Hiawatha. 

Moose (two men in a moose skin) inside the stockade — after 
examination. (Calls the warriors.) 

Awitharoa. 

This was no moose. This was two strangers — good hunters Two men di«ap- 
— mighty warriors. They came from the sunset; they must be ^"es"atercan^° 
29 



434 



State of New York 



Finds an axe 
examines it. 



followed — the matter is grave. Let the criers call the braves 
to council, and thither let Kawi and the aged men be brought. 
Kaivi 

I am the last of the children of the founders — yea, the last. 
When I was a papoose on the board, as my mother told me, we 
came out of the Land of the Sun. There were great lakes and 
falls, corn-fields, and much red copper and red stone for pipes, 
the holy gift of the Master of Life, It was the land of the 
Hurons, our forefathers. The Holder of the Heavens said: " Ye 
must build canoes and sail down the river towards the sunrise. I 
have made for you an island on a great river, full of herds of deer 
and monstrous sturgeons and Maskenonzay and lofty forests. 
For ye are the men of men. Thus were we led to the Sacred 
Island Tiotiake on which we built Hochelaga. Our chief was 
Tehari, the eloquent, the ancestor of Tekarihoken who is here. 

Now the totem of this axe (holds it up and points to handle), 
which it bears on its handle, is the Crane. These strangers are 
of our kindred, Hurons. 



The axe 
Hurons. 



Df the 



lakonon orders the 
pursuit of the 
enemy. 



American Horse as 
Awilharoa counsels 
moderation. 



lakonon (roars out). 

Kinsmen come not as spies in moose skins. The kinsmen who 
do this would slay us if they could. Let the swiftest runners seek 
their tracks, and let all strangers, and especially these treacherous 
Hurons, understand well that it is best to keep far from our 
country. 

An>'itharoa. 

My children, our fathers said ** Kindred must not be 
destroyed." If the men be found ye must offer them the pipe and 
receive them by fires; ye must share with them the pottage that is 
ready. But their trail must first be found. Let warriors who have 
taken scalps or won races follow them, and, finding them, offer 
the pipe, for the laws of peace are the people's safety as well as 
Warrior finds trail, the laws of War. But every night the gate-keepers must now keep 
watch by turns at the gate and along the top of the wall. 

Karvi. 

No such trouble hath come since the visit of the MEN-EATING 
ghosts to this Island. (Terror and commotion throughout the 
assembly.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



435 



Karvi 

It is like it. In the time of Kwenhia's grandmother came the 
men-eating ghosts to the town. They left this behind them. They 
came from the sunrise out of the great water in great canoes, 
pushed by white clouds of white skin. By their faces, we knew 
they were ghosts; at first we took them for gods, for they brought 
thunder in their hands and Hghtning, which came out of their fire 
sticks, and gave gifts and spoke softly. We received them at the 
river and brought them into the town and up to the top of the 
mountain. We gave them our best. The chief of the ghosts 
spoke many things to us in the language of the dead, healing also 
our sick by magic with his hands. Afterward the peace-chief of 
Stadacona and some of his people were carried away by them and 
eaten, and never heard of again, and such was their intention 
toward us. 

Some of the Stadaconans pretended they were white men, and 
NO men have canoes with thunder and lightning in them. Now, 
these Moose men, see how they too will bring us affliction! This 
is my wisdom — to compare one event with another. 

Crier. 

The six Algonquins are ready! 

Hiawatha and his m6n are getting ready when a cry is heard. 
(War.) 

Man approaching in canoe cries — 

Koweh! Koweh! War! War! 



Lift up behind her 
a large French 
cross, with shield 
inscribed Francis 
Rex, and fleurs-de- 
lis on the cross. 



The White Spirits 
visit Jacques Car- 
tier in 1535. 



Black Wolverine 
and his men are 
ready when there is 
heard the war cry 
of a warrior. 



lakonon. 

Koweh! Koweh! 



Answer 
Koweh ! 



Koweh! (All mounting fortifications.) Koweh! 



lakonon, the Buffalo. 
What is it my brother? 

Warrior (says) 

At the Lake — above the great Rapid. Last night as I passed 
the wood I saw a canoe of elm-bark of five paddles — two men 
slept under it — one kept watch. They had no fire. Their faces 



436 



State of New York 



Kwenhia and Onata 
do not like the 
Black Wolverine. 



Black Wolverine 
watches. He has 
arranged all this; 
he is a spy himself. 



AX'omen talk to- 
gether of their dis- 
trust of Black Wol- 
verine. 



had the WAR-PAINT. I hid — covered myself with moss. Two 
others came running fast through the woods. Their faces were 
painted. When they pulled out their canoe and started westward 
I ran out and hailed them, " Okanaguen? of what tribe be ye, 
friends? " One rose in the canoe and saying: " Of the Hurons, 
thou coward," and drew bow and sent an arrow into this arm; the 
others derided me. They paddled swiftly across the Lake. Their 
speech was strange, and yet like ours. 

lakonon. 

Those were the moose men. Thinkest thou our men could 
catch them? Had ihey corn or meat with them? 

Brave. 

None, I think. 

Iaf(onon. 

They must stop then to hunt or fish. Away braves. Take 
pouches of corn around your necks. 

Black Wolverine watches very closely. 

Black Wolverine and one of his men exchange signs and 
nudges. 

Naked hunters, only breech cloths. 

As Hiawatha and Black Wolverine leave 

Kwenhia (says) 

Would better 

Wolverine. He 



I like not the Black 



it were war than this! 
is a spy, I fear. 

(Women make pottery.) 

Onata. 

Little daughter, it is not the part of women to show fear for 
sons and brothers, and therefore I went not to see my son depart. 
Before you were born we had many wars. Every spring our 
braves sang their songs and went out on the path against the 
enemies. We women incited them to go, and if any man held 
back we danced the coward's dance around him, we offered him 
our pots to boil, the hoe, and a woman's skirt. When our men 
returned victorious we met them with crowns of feathers and sang 



The Champlain Tercentenary 437 



songs of their valor. Happy was the girl whose lover brought 
home scalps or wounds, or who wore in his hair a new feather. 
A mother MUST give her sons to war! 

Kwenhia. 

If this were but an open war! What if the Black Wolverine 
would take Hiawatha unawares. 

Onata. 

He will not take him unawares. 

(Q. goes into gate.) 

Curtain — Five Days Later. 
Girls who have been gathering nuts. Girls. 

They hear a chant. (Girls exclaim.) Warrior chanis. 

A dirge. 

Karonihares — the swift runner, with ashes on his face. 

Tell me mothers of Hochelaga, where are your children? 
Those that ye carried on cradle boards, and that ran about your 
knees ; whom your eyes delighted to follow in the ball game ; who 
were first in hunting; first in war! Maidens, where are your 
lovers? Where is thy son, O mother of Shade Karoneyes? 
(Mother shrieks.) 

Where is thy son, Onata? Where is Hiawatha? the pine 
tree, the pleasure of all the others. (Wail from Onata. Scream 
from Kwenhia. All the women wail.) 
Five is their number, I alone am left. 

They travel through the dark of the woods on their way to the 
happy hunting grounds. 

On the long, long path to the West they go. Across the dark 
river behind the sunset — across the Dark River they wend to 
the villages of the departed. 

A witharoa. 

Tell us Karonihares! 

Karonihares (says) 

We camped by the fort of the Long Rapid of Ottawa. The Karonlhare's story. 
Algonquins were boastful. They told us they would kill more 



438 



State of New York 



game than we would. We killed more, much more, than they. 
The Wolverine was in bad temper. Hiawatha warned me to 
keep watch and to wake him for his watch. I was very tired. I 
fell almost hard asleep. I opened my eyes and saw six Algon- 
quins standing each with his stone hammer, waiting for a sign to 
strike together. Wolverine was over Hiawatha. The man 
standing over me was looking at Wolverine for a sign. My arms 
had been taken away. I gave a great shout and ran. I heard the 
crunch of the hammers and the groans told me the rest. Hia- 
watha jumped up. I saw him, stunned and bleeding, stagger to 
the edge of the rocks, reel, and fall into the Rapids and sink. I 
escaped to tell you the story. 

(Avengers shout and strike the old war-post.) 

Aiviiharoa. 

I call a Lodge of Silence at once. Smoke the pipe, burn 
tobacco, pass the great pipe in silence. 

Amtharoa. 

We are met together this night. The Master of Life has 
appointed the time. 

To death have they gone upon whom we were wont to look. 
Sorrowful, let us condole together. 

Speakers (to Onata). 

We are sorry for you. We will avenge you though it takes 
years. 

Two scalps will we take for every one, and more unless the 
Algonquins make great gifts and explain — 

Aivitharoa. 

It may be that the Algonquins will punish Wolverine for break- 
ing his faith — if they do not we will punish the nation. 

Prepare the town against attack. 

Send to Hochelay, Sekenonday, Stadacona, Satahdin. Tell 
our brethren. 

Let messages go to the tribes on the Lake of the South Wind 
and the Southern river that runs to the sea. 



Young men prepare 
for war, arming 
themselves. 



Indian lamentation. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



439 



Curtain. 

Keraronwe and Tekarihoken appear on ridge after having 
visited the scene of the massacre of the Hochelaga hunters. 

Kerarontife. 

We have been where Hiawatha was killed. 

Tekarihoken. 

Our brothers who went out hunting with Hiawatha were 
scalped. Clan of the Turtle. The law of the chiefs commands 
us to avenge our brother HiAWATHA. 

Wolfskv. 

The spirits of Shade Karonyes and White Eagle reproach us. 

Wood-drift. 

Remember our slain brothers. 

(War dance, sharpen weapons, arrow makers.) 

Tekarihoken to Onaia. (Laying belt of white wampum near 
her.) 
None shall reproach us with remaining slothful in our sorrow. 
We shall obey our ancestors. This BELT SHOWS SIX BLACK 
MEN upon it, which signifies that the six snakes which killed thy 
son are already as good as dead. Mother adopt us. 

Onata. 

I take you as my sons; I adopt you. 

Awitharoa. 

Young warriors, our enemies are many, we are not yet fully 
trained for war. We will send ambassadors to ask for reparation. 
Better wait than be defeated. 
Onata. 

There can be no reparation for my dead son, but, new sons of 
mine! listen to Awitharoa. Cause not other mothers to mourn 
the death of their sons needlessly. 
Arvitharoa. 

DeKaneweda, go seven days up the river of Sunset. Make a 
strong effort to have the Algonquins make reparation for their 
misdeeds — if you cannot, then it must be war. 

Curtain. 



Onata adopts as 
sons those who are 
going to avenge 
Hiawatha. 



DeKaneweda leaves 
in a canoe for last 
effort for peace. 



440 



State of New York 



Red hatchet. 



Painted scouts of 
the enemy. 



Three Weeks Later. 

DeKanerveda. 

I have returned from the land of the Algonquins! The Black 
Wolverine was there. The moose men — spies were there ! I 
have failed. The old Sachem Tessonat counselled peace, but 
finally came to my lodge and told me that the Hurons, the far-off 
Ojibways, the Nipissings and all the Algonquins had declared 
war against us. We heard the war songs and the hatchets strik- 
ing the posts. They will come to fight us. They say they will 
torture us and make our women slaves. 

lakonon, the Buffalo. 

Get ready. We will fight as our fathers did. They are ten 
to one. We may be beaten at first but we will win at last. We 
have two months to prepare. 

Young men in ring. War dance. Sing chants. Drive RED 
HATCHET in post, red feathers, black wampum. Big drum. War 
preparations, lashing, bark buckets and carriers, stones, water. 

A xv'dharoa. 
Let us sleep. 

Curtain. 

Interlude. 

Canoe songs, family go to sleep. Marriage ceremony. loe 
laughs at his rival. loe courts and is accepted. 

(Great drum sounds.) 

The Siege. 

Hurons and Algonquins crawling up but still out of sight. 

Pounding corn. Boys shooting. 

Onata. 

The gate! The gate! 

Shout and advance of Hiawatha and Awitharoa. 

Arviiharoa. 

To the platforms, lakonon, knock down that pillar of dogs. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



441 



Buffalo. 

The snakes. (Action — knocks them down.) 
Keraromve. 

Shoot better! Shoot better — ye are sleeping, my friends. 

(Tekarihoken leaps over and scalps one.) 

While the Hurons and Algonquins are in hiding, places pole. 

Help, help, they are here in hundreds. 

(Black Wolverine appears.) 
Awitharoa. 

lakonon. place a sure arrow in thy bow — this skunk Wolver- 
ine hath not seen thee drive it through the moose. 

Black Wolverine to Onata. 

Art THOU then its mother? This is what is left of Hiawatha. 
See. it is mine now. I cut it off his head. Look upon my piece 
of thy son. O mother of Hiawatha. 

I am the wolf — thou art an angry doe. 
Onata. 

Give me back my son. evil one, give me what thou hast of him. 

(Shields and fire put out. Sorties in attempts to get water.) 

(Men killed and taken into the woods.) 
Enemies' Herald. 

Surrender Hochelagas. you have no water left and we will let 
you have none. If you surrender we will give their lives to the 
women, children and old men. 

Rushing up. children and women cry. Never, never, cowards. 
DeKanerveda (answers Herald). 

Hurons. we are of the same people. We have a woman 
among us who is a grandmother of some of your people, and also 
of some of ours; she is the oldest woman in the tribe. 

Hurons cease when they see pipe. 
Huron chiefs. 

We would see the oldest woman very gladly. 

(Carry her out on htter.) 



Enemy retires. 

Tekarihoken places 
pole. 

Climbs the pole 
again. 

Cry from the East 
End. 



Black Wolverine 
hails at Onata. 



lakonon shoots and 
Wolverine dies. 

Enemies. 



Dekaneweda with 
pipe. 



442 



State of New York 



Old woman. 

I am one of yours — in face — in talk — in dress — we have 
the same Master of Life. Make with us, therefore, a league of 
brotherhood; we will give rich gifts as a price for your dead, and 
you shall go home and tell how you have found nephews. 

Hurons discuss, and later their 

Herald says — 

Awitharoa, Great Chief, we honor the old woman, and if she 
will come out to us we will take her back to her people. You are 
our cousins, but our cousins are many and they are not all our 
friends, and if we have too many friends, of whom would our 
young men obtain their scalps. We cannot go home without 
scalps, what would we say to our women? How shall we content 
our allies, the Algonquins, the people of the Northern Lights? 
How shall we pay them for the loss of their great chief Wolverine 
and many others. We will do THIS. A sacrifice is necessary to 
give peace to the spirits of our dead. Give us your wise Head 
Chief, Awitharoa, to pass through the fire, and we will let you go 
out and leave this country safely, but forever after when we meet 
you we will kill you. 

Hochelagam. 
Never! Never! 



To Awitharoa, 
Great Chief. 



Hurons offer 
terms. 



Hochelagans refuse 
terms. 



Awitharoa's appeal 
to the Hochelagas. 



Huron Herald. 

Then you are already as dead. The fight will go on. 

(Hurons disappear.) 

Awitharoa. 

I would speak to all the HoCHELAGANS. This night the 
Hochelagans will fight as they never fought before. Remember, 
we are called the MEN OF MEN. Those of us who go to our 
ancestors will not be afraid to tell them how we died. If a breach 
should be made and the enemy get through the wall, remember 
that I have set the children and the old people in the barricade 
inside the gate. There we will fight afresh. If ye drive off the 
wolves this night Hochelaga will be saved. But if the place fall, 
let none give himself up; let all die; our Father to-morrow must 
not look upon a coward. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 443 



Hurons place fires. Axes cut down stakes. A breach in the 

palisades. 

First Algonquins knocked down — others press in. 

Aivitharoa says 

To the barricades. 

All the Hurons crowd around the breach — when Hiawatha Hiawatha comes 
and party appear they run in awe — Hiawatha follows to west '^'.''l °^^" *"PPo»«d 

^ J ^^ J spirits and attacks 

end (Hurons run). enemy, who run. 

Atifitharoa. 

We thank thee, O Master of Life, for saving thy people. 

Hiawatha (returning from chasing the enemy). 

Hochelagans fall on their faces. 

Awitharoa. 

Spirit of Hiawatha, most revered. 

Hiali>atha. 

Fear me not — I am no spirit — I am Hiawatha. 

Atifitharoa. 

We revere thee. Who are the mighty ones with thee? 

Hiatvatha. 

They are Hochelagans from the Solitary Mts. and our 
brothers, the Onondagans. It seems we have not been too early. 
Ye have no water — Bring it — Drink in safety. 

Arvilharoa. 

Most honourable (placing head-dress) head chief do I make 
thee on the field of battle — you have saved the whole nation. 

All. 

Hoh. Hoh. Hoh. 

Awiiharoa to Hiawatha. 

Tell us what happened thee at the hands of the Wolverine, 
who is dead now — lakonon killed him — we thought thee 
drowned in the rapid. 

Hiawatha. 

1 thought myself drowning and I knew nothing until I found 
myself in the canoe of an Onondagan arrow maker — he had 



444 



State of New York 



Hiawatha tells what lost his nephew by the Hurons and he adopted me in his place — 
happened to him. 5^ ^j^^^ j ^^ ^^^ ^j ^j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^-^^^ ^^ ^^^ Onondagans — but 

I could not forget mine own people. The Master of Life told me 
to make our tribes ONE in peace and war. I was on my way to 
visit you when I saw marks on the beach of Huron war canoes, 
numberless as ice-cakes on the water in the spring. I adopted 
the ghost stratagem because we were so few. But why do I not 
see my MoTHER and KwENHIA? (A minute silence.) 
Hia'D>atha. 

Where are their bodies? 



Hiawatha hears of 
the death of his 
mother, Onata, and 
Kwenhia. 



Awitharoa offers 
himself a sacrifice. 



Huron chief to 
Awitharoa. 



(Hiawatha sits down and throws his robe over his head.) 

Arv'ilharoa. 

Take in more water! Put out SENTINELS. Be ready to run 
inside the barricades. The wolves are only frightened away for 
a time. Keep yourselves protected from the arrows. 

Sentinels cr}) 

Koweh, Koweh. Indians runs behind barricades. Close the 
gates. Hurons and Algonquins return. Watch the barricade. 

Awitharoa. (Comes out among them and says: 

Men of the strange nation, ye have said ye will let my people 
go out and leave this country safely if they will give you their 
Head Chief to pass through the fire. Here I am — make the 
fire. (Page 100. Master of Life.) 

Huron Head Chief. 

Awitharoa, thou art of a race that has courage and glory. 
We are sorry that thou should'st die, but the spirits of our dead 
are in misery and thy spirit following after them shall gladden 
their hearts. We shall keep our honor with thee. Aguaron, take 
the great Calumet, tell the Hochelagas that they may pass out 
safely at sunrise, because the Fire-god hath accepted the flesh 
of their Head Chief. 

Awitharoa (says) 

Tell them they must not try to rescue me. I have pledged my 
honor. Tell them that I await them with the braves of old in 
the hills of the Lake of the Southwind, where you will rebuild 
Hochelaga. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 445 

(Whoop, calling together all the Hurons and Algonquins.) 

Hurons, I would sing my death chant. 

Death song of Awitharoa. Triumphs of peace. 

All treaties I have kept; always honor I have maintained; 
feuds I have allayed, I have worked for the happiness of my 
people. 

Huron leaders invocation to fire, signal to Awitharoa to enter. 
Lies down in fire. 

Afvitharoa. 

I do this for thee Hochelaga. I do this for the little children. 

Huron mystery men rattle bells and drums. 

Huron chief raises his hand. Body taken from fire. Bury Huron Chief orders 
Ti as a g] 
all leave.) 



him as a great chief should be buried. (Hurons and Algonquins ^u^JwrbuJiaL*"" 



Scene. 

Departure of Hochelagas for Lake of the South Wind, 
(Champlain.) All cry — Farewell Tiotiake, Farewell Hoche- 
laga, Farewell good peace-chief, beloved Awitharoa! 

lakonon. 

For a thousand moons and more we, ourselves, our children, lakonon's threat and 

and our children's children will fight until no Huron and no P^°P^^«^y °^ 
. , . . revenge. 

Algonqum remams. 

Curtain. 

Scene Changed. 
Ten years later. 

On Lake Champlain. 

A camp fire and solitary warrior — a runner from the Hoche- 
lagas enters showing the pipe. 

/Runner. 

Dekaneweda, the chief of the Hochelagas, sends me to ask 
whence thou art. 



446 State of New York 



Attoxv Maker. 
The Arrow Maker I am the arrow maker of the Onondagas — who adopted your 
on''the'Lak^ofThc ^^o\htx, the glorious Hiawatha, who led you out of the burning. 
South Wind. I have come to welcome you to the land of peace; it is wooded 

and full of fastnesses. There you can defend yourself against 
the Huron and the Northern Light. Thence you can send your 
parties to attack them — if they do ill. This is why ye have 
Tells of Hiawatha's seen my smoke in the valley. Hiawatha would make an ever- 
proposed con- lasting treaty of peace and alliance between you and the Onon- 
dagas. In the valley of the Mohawk river you shall dwell. Ye 
shall be called MoHAWKS, and the country will be yours. 

Curtain. 

Scene. Eight Years After. 

In the land of the Onondagas. 

Hiawatha meets with envy and trouble. 

L, . . , , . Hatiria. 

Hatina shows his i i- i i i i • 

hatred of Hiawatha. Arrow maker, our gods like not Hiawatha — they hale him. 

Arrow Maker. 

But HE is a god — was it a man who could he alone in the 
bushes on the rock of Ticonderoga and hold back 70 Huron 
warriors by fear? Was it a man who traveled forty days within 
the land of the Algonquins, who walked at evening into the vil- 
lage of the Torch and up to the fire in the lodge of the Head-Chief 
Tessonat's son, took dowTi his war club, slew and scalped him, 
and left a feather beside him, for a sign to our enemies, marked 
with the mark of the Onondagas. Does not the war club of 
Tessonat's son hang on the post in my lodge! 

Surely! Hiawatha is a god! 

Hatiria. 
Chief of the He is Only a vile Mohawk. Not such is Atotarho, chief of 

non agas. ^j^^ Onondagas, the greatest chief in the world. He is a true- 

born Onondaga. 

Arrow Maker. 

Hatiria, False Face, I am a lover of all warriors. Atotarho in- 
deed is great. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 447 



Hatiria. 

Hiawatha cures by roots, curing is our part, and we cure by 
the drum. He shall suffer for it. (Hatiria leaves.) 

Arroiv Maker. 

Hatiria chatters like a crow, but he is dangerous. He is a 
coward, but he can hunt and wound brave men with his tongue. 

Atotarho and the Snakes. 
Hatiria. 

Lightning of Onondaga. Lord of all nations. Great wolf I 
What meaneth the blood scent on the trail — 

Atotarho. 

Hath the Cherokees come up? 

Hatiria. 

Nay, nor the Huron. 

Atotarho. 

What meaneth thou? 

Hatiria. 

I dreamt last night that the Hemlock was trying to overshadow 
the Pine — 

Atotarho. 

What was the meaning of thy dream? O False Face. 

Hatiria. 

The Pine is Atotarho — the Hemlock is Hiawatha. He 
boasts that he is greater than thou. 

A. 

Hiawatha does? 

H. 

Yea; he sang it in his song before the journey he is on — that 
journey the direction whereof none knoweth. 

A. 

But he is an adopted Onondagan — the son of our good 
Arrow-Maker. 



448 State of New York 



H. 

Thou knowest not what I know by my magic. I follow him 
on that journey, and I see him paddling to their sacred Island. 

A. 

Still, are not the Mohawks brothers to us — Hiawatha has 
fought well for us. 

H. 

It has puffed his heart. 

A. 

He has fought by my side — we are brothers in clan. 

H. 

His craft is deep. He rises by thy help. He has learnt war 
from thee. In my shell I hear him boasting that he goes back to 
their island to build up his own people again and make them the 
masters. 

A, 
AtotarHo'j snakes. Be silent, until I consult my oracles, the snakes. 

(Holding up a snake.) 

What sayest thou? Shall it be war with the Mohawks? 

Thou wouldest bite me — Thus the Mohawk would do. thou 
sayest. 
Consultation. Now, tell me shall it be war, then, with the Mohawks? Thou 

sayest yes — Thou givest me another war to add to my glory. 
It will be war with the Mohawks. 

Now, shall Hiawatha die? Thou escapest? He is then to 
escape — Thine answers are plain. Hatiria! I shall make 
war with the Mohawks, but thou, thyself, shalt deal with 
Hiawatha. Perhaps he, too, is as they say in part god; and, 
verily, he seems sometimes wiser and different — yea and braver, 
than a man. 

Haiiria. 
War against ihc False faces — It is to be war with the Mohawks — Call the 

people — (People make no sign of approbation). 



The Champlain Tercentenary 449 

Scene. 

Hiawatha approaching in his canoe — sees the war signal. Signal fire on rock. 

Liille Boy. 

Hiawatha, Hiawatha! What news, Hiawatha? 

HiaTvaiha. 

Why is this fire burning? 

Woman. 

To answer Atotarho's yonder. 

Hiawatha. 

Has the Huron struck our hamlets? 

Woman. 

Atotarho strikes the Mohawk. 

Anon) Maker. 

Son, I have told them this war is evil! 

Hiarvaiha. 

All war is evil — Let us have peace, we need alliance, not 
defiance. I am tired. I will rest. 

(Hiawatha sleeps.) 

Arrow Maker. 

The warriors return — I hear their chants of victory — the Mohawk prisoner* 
scalpers exult — This is the work of Hatiria. entering, taunted 

with lost honor 

Mohawk Chief (Prisoners enter). """^ treachery. 

Strike hard, ye feeble people. Ye are foxes and muskrats, but 
ye snap at bears. Ye are little flies that know not how to make 
a man wince. 

You have lost your honor — You broke the peace guaranteed 
by the calumet — You will be punished — Your scalps shall 
wave before the Lodges of our men — the men of men. 

(Hiawatha springs up.) 

Arrow Maker. 

Be still. Leave the Mohawks to my care — Go thou to the 
Council. 

30 



450 



State of New York 



The old Arrow 
Maker is merciful 
to prisoners. 



Hiawatha calls a 
council. 



Hiawatha's vision. 



The War chief. 



(Arrow-maker gives them water — Drink calmly — Pipe to 
all five prisoners. 

Attotv Maker. 

It is wise to be careful, we have broken the faith of the 
Calumet. 

To all — Touch not these men until the Council have 
deliberated. 

Hiaivalha. 

I call a Council. 

(Council). 

Hiawatha. 

Brothers of the Hill — I have been on a long journey to the 
Northwest — I have communed with the Great Spirit. He has 
spoken to me. Did you wish a proof — Hear me ! In my vision 
I saw that the number ye have slain in this war is four. If this 
be right my words are from the gods — 

(Exclamations.) I see at the head of the four who are travel- 
ling, an old Chief. His forehead is painted, and his left breast is 
pierced by a broken arrow. If this be right, my words are from 
the gods — (cries and groans.) The youngest is a youth without 
a feather, but a hammer has crushed his skull and he carries a 
broken knife; if this be right, my words are from the gods — 
Hush. 

War Chief. 

The very least thou hast said is true. 

Hiaivatha. 

I have been to Tiotiake — I fought many of the enemy on 
the mountain — I killed some and escaped — I made a long fast 
and prayed. I heard and saw what I told you in my trances. I 
now add this — war against the Mohawks must end — The 
prisoners must be released and sent home wdth large presents to 
the relatives of their dead companions. 

(Mask and rattle). 
Hatiria. 

Chiefs and braves — The False Faces also have taken Counsel 
with the spirits. I dreamt that a wolf stepped on a nest of rattle- 



The Champlain Tercentenary 451 



snakes _ They tried to bite him - He gnashed his teeth and four Ha.iria's appeal 
lay dead 1 he message of Hiawatha is from the Mohawk gods against Hiawatha, 
and not from those of Onondaga. 

The Double-Sighted, 

The war has begun, we must exterminate the Mohawks, or tf, n m • u j 

they will punish us. I he Double-sighted 

chief for war. 

Atotarho. 

What fear ye. Onondagans! Are ye not able for the oeonle of a l . 
the Island? Surely the prudence of^Hiawatha' great b^ti! "'° ''' ^"■ 
lessens the power of the warrior in the face of the enemy — 
Wherever ye hear the voice of Atotarho. there shall ye hear of 
scalps and expeditions, war paint and battle axes, scars, stratagem 
war, and ever war! (rattles). 

Red Wings. 

Hia^atht'IhT* Z\ "' '° ^^'"" ' mountain -the vision of Red Wl„,s supports 
Hiawatha the truthful cannot be set aside. What, shall men dare Hiawatha' if 
to reply to the Great Spirit? It is necessary to fight the ENEMY "'^""'^ °^ ""• 
— It is wrong to fight our FRIENDS — I am not proud of the 
Unondagas in this war. 

Hiawatha. (Bow.) 

War is wrong if it can be avoided and is not. Too long have ^. ,, . 
the mothers wailed for their elder sons that came not back in STpfed! """'* 
summer Too long have we cut off the fingers of the captives, 
and exhorted each other to make our hearts of stone. I see a 
better day. Our children shall play in safety _ our hunters shall 
not hide their trails - our women shall sing in the cornfields. 
This IS the way it shall be brought about. The five nations, the 
brave Mohawks, the great Onondagans. the Cayugas. the Oneidas. 
he mighty Senecas. will together make a chain of silver of five 
links — we shall build one Long House for the five — Ye shall 
found a league of the five nations and bind it with belts of wam- 
pum Every year we shall meet and the silver belt shall be 
brightened. 

If any tribe submit to the league there shall be peace with it 
If any hurt not the League, it will the League not hurt. But if 

We shall be feared, but we shall be just - Wailing shall finally 



452 State of New York 



be heard no more, nor blood of men be seen in the woods. (All 
in favor of it, but afraid of Atotarho.) 

Red Wings, 
Red Wings supports Hiawatha, thou speakest of a League of many nations — As 
Hiawatha again. jj^g ^^^ ^^^ moon move slowly across the lake so goeth the pace 

of a wise Council. Meanwhile we must send the captives back. 

Hiawatha. 

By the side of the lake there is the white stone. Let all the 
people meet there a day hence for council about the League. Get 
ready for the war path. 

Atotarho and Hatiria leave. 

Red Wings. 
Red \^'in s to Brave Mohawks — enter our wigwams — shake the elbows of 

Mohawk prisoners, our people — feast with us — ye shall carry home wampum and 

amulets with which we would undo the wrong we have done. 

(Sends them home with presents). 

All leave but Arrow Maker and Hiawatha. 

Arrow Maker. 

Hatiria hates thee, but thou art so much greater that I believe 
thou wilt be the victor (pause). I hope you may succeed at 
your peace meeting. The battle is sometimes won by the wounded. 

Scene. 

Hiawatha's confer- White StonE. Mat of rushes — Hiawatha seated — 

ence at the sacred t-> i r i • i i r -i i u- l » 

white stone. Bunch 01 white wampum belt — hre pile ready. Hiawatha s 

„ ., friends around him — women and children, 

r allure. 

Atotarho thwarts Atotarho comes in full war-paint — young men, war-paint. 

him by starting on All go and leave Hiawatha. 

a war party against 

the Cherokees. Hiawatha takes his belts and goes to his canoe sad — Arrow 

shot into it — robe over his head as he leaves. 

Atotarho (preparing for war with the Cherokees). 

Ho — warriors, who are not afraid of enemies and war. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 453 



Curtain. — In the land of the Mohawks. 

Dekamteeda. 

Girl, what has frightened thee so? Girl frightened at 

the sight of an 
drl. Onondaga warrior. 

A man of Onondaga. 

DekaneWeda. 

Did he speak? Was he painted? 

Cirl 

He did not speak — he was not painted nor armed. Strings 
of white shells covered his breast — He looked good, but his 
Onondaga feather frightened me. 

(To three women close behind). 
Dekanexpeda. 

Light your fires and heat the cooking STONES red. Take down 
your corn ears to roast, for the house belongs to whoever stands 
at the threshold, and, though this man be Onondagan, he comes 
with white shells of peace — (All obey.) 

Warily peeping through the saphngs, in one hand a tomahawk, 
in the other a pipe. 

Dekanerveda. 

Clan brother, Hiawatha. 

Hiatvatha. 

Saigo, Dekaneweda. 

Procession of Mohawks. 

Dekaneweda. 

Hiawatha — (Laughter. Weeping with gladness — Shout Hiawatha's glad re- 
Saigo many times — Hiawatha ! Several times. Passing the ^awkt^ *''^ 
pipe.) 

Hiafifatha (says) 

Mohawks, I come from Onondaga (silence) . (Threats — 
fists.) I come rejected and driven out — I am henceforth a 
Mohawk. (Dancing in glee as they hear.) 



454 State of New York 



Dekanerveda. 

Quiet ! Silence ! 

Seroniha. 

Let us go forth and avenge Hiawatha. Let us burn the lodges 
of Onondaga. Hiawatha shall lead us. 

Dekanen^eda. 

Quiet. Silence. Young men, listen to the old. 

HiaHfaiha. 
Hiawatha restrains Assuredly I would lead you if I spoke words of my own, but 
lays before them the words I speak, O children of Tiotiake, are the words of the 
his plan of a con- Thunder and the Sun — of the MASTER OF LiFE. I have been 
on a long journey — I have slept on the low shores of the Salt 
Lake. I have been on the little river of the Senecas, thence to 
the full flooded river of the Oneidas. I saw their strongholds, 
the great expanse of waters and their palisade, up among the 
mountains. I gave the sign of peace — It was not returned. 
They mistrusted me when they saw my Onondaga feather. Their 
bows were pressed upon me when a chief called out, Hiawatha. 
The Oneidas are our younger brothers. They received me 
gladly. They have one heart with you, and hate the Onondagas 
because of their breaking the peace of the calumet so falsely with 
you. They are ready to make the treaty of peace with us. 
Many Onondagas have fled into the land of the Oneidas because 
of the cruelty of Hatiria and his false faces. Hatiria tried to kill 
the Arrow Maker, but killed another man instead. The Arrow 
Maker has fled, awaiting the return of Atotarho. I collected 
there a pouch of white shells. I came from there by the river 
of the Mohawks (that river will be yours), arriving last night. 
I heard your war songs from afar — I slept and dreamt — The 
Master of Life gave to me a vision. He spoke to me of the 
future of our race — He told me that we should be conquerors 
for a time, but that after should come a strange race, in number 
like the drops of rain. He told me to make friends with them 
and with all men — that peace was better than war. He has 
spoken to me before in other ways, I have spoken his message, 
which is a message of peace, peace first amoung ourselves (cries.) 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



455 



Atotarho and Hatiria, the chief of the False Faces of the Hiawatha wins the 
Onondagas, have opposed me successfully so far, but most of the ^°'^*^''«- 
Onondagans hate Hatiria and are our friends. Atotarho is a 
great chief and I will yet win him over. He will make full 
reparation to the Mohawks and be the great war-chief of the 
mighty long-house of the five nations. Chief OF Two EQUAL 
Statements. 

Dekaneweda. 

Hiawatha, it is not easy for us to forgive Onondaga, but thou 
art a true Mohawk and we listen to thee. 

Hiawatha, Son of the Spirits, much have I heard of thy work Dekaneweda .up- 
for a union of the five tribes, henceforth thy labor is done. Stay PP'^'l ^J^^ Iroquoii 
thou in the lodge, and our Father, the Divine, will send his great 
hght unto all hearts and will enable me to lead the nations into 
the Long House of Friendship. Its east door shall be at the 
sunrise and its west door shall be at the sunset. Thou hast pro- 
posed and worked for the league, and thine shall be the glory for 
ever. I will finish the league, and though dying I shall have a 
small share of thy glory forever in the assembly of the tribes. To- 
day I depart to visit the other nations. 



Confederacy. 



Return of Afofar- 
ho*s successful war 
party. 



Curtain. — Scene in Onondaga. 
Procession — Atotarho and his war party return with the 
beautiful Cherokee captive and scalps — war whoop — screams 
of squaws and boys. 

Hatiria and followers come out from Mystery Lodge. 
Atotarho. 

Show me the holes of the woodchucks! Where have my 
people hidden from the dogs? Where are the Onondagas. 

Where are the rattlesnakes? Has the Huron stamped them 
out with his foot? Has the Mohawk chased them away in my 
absence. I see only women and children and aged chiefs. Lo, 
had we really been Cherokees the tribe had been destroyed. 
Hatiria (sententlously). 

The cause is the false Hiawatha. He has slain one of our Hatiria accuses 
warriors. He has led away the Arrow Maker and many of our "^"'Xit'^en aL^X 
people to the land of the Oneidas and the Mohawks. Onondagas. 



456 State of New York 



Atolarho. 

Hath Hiawatha done this? Is it true that the Arrow Maker 
is gone. There is none other that can make a war arrow. 

Hat'iria. 
Hatiria accuses Bewarc of Hiawatha and his friends. 

Hiawatha. 

Atotarho. 

Bah — cowards. 

Cherokee (to Hatiria). 

The Cherokee girl J^^q^ ^rt a COWard. 

captive calls Ha- 
tiria a coward. 

Hatiria. 

What sayest thou, woman? 

Cherokee. 

Thy words have the sound of one who hves by lies. 

Hatiria. 

Strange woman — who art thou? Thou shalt die by fire — 
False faces seize her (warriors step between) — No ! No ! 

Cherokee Woman. 

Body of a chief — heart of a rat, I fear neither thee nor thy 
ghosts — Where are the scalps thou hast taken? (Laughs and 
turns away.) 

Hatiria returns to Mystery Lodge. 

Atotarho. 

Red Wings, where is the Arrow Maker? 

Red Wings. 
Red Wings tells ^^^ Cherokee woman may be in part right about Hatiria. The 

Atotarho that Ha- Arrow Maker hath disappeared, but there was blood at the door 
caTseTMhe^ArrV.v °f ^'^ lodge. Hatiria loved him not. 

Maker's absence. 

Atotarho. 

Where are the others, Sabjenwat and Nishen? Where are 
they? 



The Champlain Tercentenary 457 



Red Wings. 

Who killed them I know not. I am old. The blood at his 
porch was not shed by the Arrow Maker or by Hiawatha. An 
attempt was made to kill the Arrow Maker, I believe. 

Atotarho. 

Who did it then? 

(Women pass with deer bone hoes. Cherokee among them. 
Hatiria approaches.) 

Atotarho. 

Ho! Hatiria, where are the scalps thou hast taken? 

(Pause). 

What hast thou from the spirits — (Cherokee pauses). 

Hatiria (putting shell to his ear, chants). 

He was born upon an island. He was born a Mohawk — he Hatiria tells of 
is no Onondagan — he is a treacherous Mohawk — I hear the J?^!'!!^^.^"'^ 
Mohawks approaching — a large war party — Hiawatha is 
among them. 



approaching. 



a s 



The two chiefs confer — A hunter comes running in — blown. 
Hunter. 

I have seen a large party of Mohawks — I have trailed them. Scout tells of 
They are marching directly here — (Excitement and prepara- Mol^awks' coming. 
tion.) 

Mohawk Chief approaches with pipe, wishing to be heard — Dekanewedi 
says his men are camped close by. He spreads out a shining P^^" '"'*''°" 
band of white wampum. 

DekaneWeda. 

Great is Atotarho the Onondaga. Great is Atotarho the war Dckaneweda tells 
chief. I am Dekaneweda the war chief of the Mohawks. Atotarho that their 

mission is to make 

The Mohawks. P^""- 

Great is Hiawatha who has received much kindness from the 
Onondagas, from the Arrow Maker, from his clan brother. 



458 State of New York 



To Atoiarho — the great. 

Hiawatha is true to Onondaga. When our warriors were 
singing their war songs and preparing for battle with the Onon- 
dagas, Hiawatha came to us, peace pipe in hand — and said, 
Atotarho is a great chief — Among the Onondagas we have many 
friends — We must make all the Onondagas our friends, as we 
have made the Oneidas, the Cayugas, the Senecas, our friends. 
Then from one great salt sea to another the five nations shall for- 
bid war; they shall punish all those who do injustice; they shall 
grow rich and much happiness shall gladden all hearts. (Cherokee 
comes up and listens with interest.) 

Red Wings. 

Thy words are good — often have I spoken to Hiawatha of 
these things — Let us hear Atotarho. 

Atotarho. 
Atotarho repulses Here is my answer (holding up war clubs and spear). 

the friendly advance 

Ihe Mohawr"^'' HatIRIA's DanCE —(Red Wing draws away Dekaneweda). 

Red Wings. 

Come, it is no use — Hatiria triumphs again. 

Dekaneiveda. 

I return to Hiawatha. 

Hatiria. 

The False Faces triumph, our gods are the true gods of the 
Onondagas. 

Cherokee. 

Cherokee tells Ato- Atotarho, you are being led by a poor thing — Simple it is 

and pours contempt t° foretell like Hatiria, for I myself saw the smoke signs upon the 

on Hatiria. mountains whereby the approach of the Mohawks was signalled 

and in my land we do it much better. As for those chieftains, 

think ye such men would make an ignoble use of the calumet. 

Not such an one is that Dekaneweda, not such is anyone that 

bears himself so hke an eagle. This tale of Hatiria's is like his 

tales of the ghosts. 

Apparition of the man-eating ghost — All the women run ex- 
cept the Cherokee woman. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 



459 



Hatiria attempts to 
frighten the Onon- 
daga village by ap- 
pearing as a spirit. 



Cherokee. Rushing forward. 

I have caught thee thou god, thou ghost, thou evil one. Thou 
wouldest frighten us. Thou shall not escape me. Come, off 
thou magic robe, come off thou mash of chalk, thou hair of bear 
skin. Aha! wooden face, not so wouldst thou frighten children 
and women in the land of the Cherokees! Coward of cowards! 
Man-eating ghost, disturber of villages. Thou art brave among 
the Onondaga women, stand here and face the battle lord (push- 
ing him forward into the presence of Atotarho.) Hatiria runs. 
Thou liar! Thou rat! Hatiria jumps over the cliff. 



Atotarho (after looking over — smiling to the Cherokee). 

Thou she-bear — Atotarho chases 

Hatiria the 

Look for Hatiria — if you find him dance the coward's dance imposter. 
around him and then I will attend to him. 

Daughter of the Eagle, I have prepared thee a place in 
my lodge — thou shalt be perfectly free, like the women of my 
clan who dwell with me. Who wert thou in the land of thy 
mother? 

Cherokee. 

A child of as great as thou art. I have never been slave to a The Cherokee ac- 
man but I will accept a place. O Chief, in thy lodge. AMarho^s^'i^dge. 

Atotarho. 

Post sentinels around the village. The Mohawks may return 
outside the tepee. 

That night — False faces return — two men with masks. 

False Faces — V/here did she choose her place? The other jvvo false faces at- 
one points to it — Crawl in — Hatiria in the background — Kill ]^^P^ }° mrndtt the 

, r— , 1 11 I 1 Cherokee. Atotar- 

her sure — 1 he gods will bless you. ho strangles them in 

the tepee. 

Atotarho. 

Die murderers, cowards, who would kill a woman — fit fol- 
lowers of the snake Hatiria (Choking an Indian). 



Curtain. 



460 State of New York 



Scene. 
Arrival of a Cayuga. 
The Cayuga tells of Your Hiawatha is among us — He is honored by us all. The 
to tiiem * * ™'"'°° Senecas, the Oneidas and Cayugas have formed an everlasting 
peace pact with him. Dekaneweda is with him — We have no 
orator like him. He has made the four nations one. He is a 
friend of Atotarho. He hopes the Onondaga will join the chain 
The Cherokee de- ^^'^ make it one of five links. (Cherokee comes near.) Where 
lermines to go to is this Fliawatha? I would like to see him. He is a great man. 
Hu,waiha to help ^totarho shows rage and jealousy. 

(The Cherokee goes away with the Cayuga). 

Atotarho. 
Atotar!.o*s indecis- Warriors, make ready for war with the Mohawks and the 
ion IS tormented by ^jj^gj. traitors. Atotarho makes peace with no one, fears no one 

his love of the _ *^ 

Cherokee. — stop — What good will it do me to kill Mohawks and lose my 

own warriors? 

Ah — woman of the Cherokees, bitter, bitter is it that thou 
vsrilt not love me but must seek for Hiawatha — His she may be 
now. 



During the Fishing parties are formed — Tillage industries — Pound corn 

Cherokee-s absence. _ ^^]^^ ^^^ |i,oj^„gtg _ Arrows — Paddles — War cry is 

heard — The Mohawks come, a great band. 

Atotarho. 

Arm yourselves, men — every man — no Mohawk will leave 
here alive. 

Red Wings. 

Atotarho, see the pipe of peace. It is not war. It is a council 
they seek. 

Atotarho. 
Hostile reception of False, false, be ready every man — Let every man hide — do 

je'iirs' Atoitilho'in "°* ^^°°* ""^'^ ^ ^^y ^° — Women and children get back to the 

spite of the pipe of woods — quick. 

peace. 

Hiawatha lands and presents the pipe. 

Atotarho grasps his great hammer. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 461 



Cherokee. 
Atotarho. 

Atotarho. 

O Woman, is it thus thou hast repaid me for the trust I placed J^" heaT'^of ""le 

in thee. After spurning me you flee to Hiawatha — O Snake, O fierce Atotarho, as 

Moon daughter, O false one. t\ T"^' '° ''''" 

° that she went away 

for his sake. 
Cherokee. 

Atotarho, knowest thou not why I left thee — why I went to 

Hiawatha? It was to make my Atotarho the greatest man in 

the world — I bring thee the headchiefship of the Long House 

that is to shelter all the nations. 

Hiaivatha. 

The custom saith — It shall be in the keeping of the Prin- 
cipal Chief. (Presents him the great pipe.) 

Atotarho drops the club, bends his head, turns away his eyes. 

Cherokee. 

Atotarho — my Atotarho, Chief of the World! 

Atotarho. 

O Maiden, look not at me so softly, brave and true woman, 
not I, but Hiawatha is the Greatest of men. Let the 
Pipe be given to him. 

Hia'Watha. 

Nay, the Council of nations hath chosen, and hath chosen the ^'*Y*''^f '^t^Tu- 
best. Let all the people come together (gathering). offered^him bV '^ 

Here, children of the Sun, we build a house of living trees. Atotarho. 
The number of its hearths is live. Whoever will enter its doors 
may sit at the fire and the women will bring him roasted corn. Its 
doors shall be open to all. The Doorkeeper of the Dawn shall be 
the Mohawk, the Doorkeeper of the Sunset shall be the Seneca. 

The Grand Chief Shall be Atotarho of the Onon- 
DAGAS, and his successors shall bear his name, and the Council 
shall meet at Onondaga yearly, under the Pine tree. 

No one of our nations shall oppress the other, nor move it 
against its will. 



462 State of New York 

In wampum shall the story be kept, and never shall it cease 
from your memories — the tale of the day when ye founded the 
great Peace. 

(End up with Mohawk songs of joy.) 

Curtain. 



(Scene 15 Years Later.) 

The men are greyer. Runners approach. 

Koweh, Koweh! The Algonquins and Abenakis approach in 
many canoes — painted and armed. 

Aiotarho. 

Battle of Lake Prepare, warriors ! No Algonquin shall return — let us go 

Champlain. ^^ ^^ggj ^^^^^ 

After the Battle of Lake Champlain. 

On the north side of the island, Champlain and his men depart 
with their spoils. 

Scene — The Iroquois return — Wailing. 

Atotarho the brave is gone — Dekaneweda the great and good 
was destroyed by the thunder of the white ghosts — The gods 
war against us. Burial ceremonies and songs. 

Woe! Woe! Woe! Hiawatha foretold it. O Hiawatha» 
return to our councils. Let thy Spirit return. 

Curtain. — Next season — Arrival of the Dutch. 

Runner. 

Here white men appear from the south, but there are Indians 
among them — See. 

Tekahiroken. 

These may be the men with whom Hiawatha told us to make 
peace. We have no enemies to the south — See the Mohawk 
feather. It is our own that guide them. Joy — joy. 



The Champlain Tercentenary 463 



Mohawk Guides. 

These are friends come to trade with us. They make the 
thunder and Hghtning and sell us the sticks of black copper to fire 
them. 

See! See! (Strangers land.) Received with fear and trem- 
bling — women and children running away. 

Teharihoken, 

We fought white men eating ghosts from the north who have Arrival of Corlaer. 
a flower for a token. They came with our enemies — The Algon- 
quins, Abenakis, and Toudamans. They had thunder sticks like 
these. 

Dutch Leader. 

They will never defeat you again — we will give you these 
and show you how to fire and kill your enemies and the big game 
of your woods — See, how it is done ; loads, fires. 

Tekarihoken. 

We will give you furs, as many as your canoes can carry — Adoption of Cor- 
we will be your friends — Quote Longfellow — We will make 'l^.^^'.y "^/'f^j 
you a chief — - Corlear — Adoption of — Shakes hands all ship. Belt given to 
around — Corlear gives presents, sees their dances, and departs °^ *^'' 
— The Indians fire a salute and sing a good-bye song and dance 
the snake dance that he may have a prosperous voyage. 




HISTORICAL MAP OF THE CHAMPLAIN VALLEY 



ANALYTICAL INDEX 



Compiled by 

CHARLES ALEXANDER NELSON. A. M., Head Reference Librarian (Retired) 
of Columbia University 



ABENAKIS feasted by Burgoyne, 
8; the paddles of Champlain's, 
275 ; in vision of the past, 306, 308. 

Abercromby, General James, Defeat of, 
at Ticonderoga, by Montcalm, 3, 34, 
134, 140, 158, 395-96; attack of, 
on Fort Frederic, 1 29 ; flotilla of, on 
Lake George, 157; incapacity of, 
158, 1 82 ; sailing with, marching 
with, 1 69 ; dying with, fighting with, 
flying with, 1 70-72. 

Aboriginal history of the valley, 385. 

Aborigines, Lake Champlain a paradise 
for the, 4; domination of, 13; 
French made allies of, 386. 

Absolutism and hberty. Struggle between, 
212. 

Acadia, 156. 

Act, An, to provide for the celebration 
of the Tercentenary of the discovery 
of Lake Champlain, as recommended, 
39-40; as passed, chapter 149, 
Laws of 1 908, and subsequent pro- 
visions, 47-49; as amended, chap- 
ter 44, Laws of 1910. 49-50; as 
amended, chapter 181, Laws of 
1911, 349 ; extending the time of 
the Commission, authorizing monu- 
ments at Crown Point and Platts- 
burgh, and reappropriatmg unex- 
pended balance of appropriation, 
349-50. 



Adirondack wilderness. The, on Cham- 
plain's right, 148. 

Adirondacks, The, 268, 336; apex of 
the "Canadian shield," 373; tower- 
ing summits of, worn down, 376-77. 

Advertising, effective and economical, 
demanded, 56; project entered into, 
59. 

Africa in 1609 and 1909. 329. 

Alaska- Yukon Exposition, The, 234. 

Albanel, Jesuit, 389. 

Albany, Meetings of the Commission at, 
55, 58; raiders near, pursued and 
defeated at the lake, 391-92. 

Alexander IV, Pope, recognized the 
Gallican liberties, 1 1 3. 

Alexander VI, Pope, divided the unex- 
plored earth between Spain and Por- 
tugal, 109. 

Algonquins, Isle La Motte once a camp- 
ing ground of the, 4, 315; feasted 
by Burgoyne, 8, 222, 228; sixty, 
with Champlain, 147; ancestral 
enemies of the Iroquois, 1 48, 151, 
359, 463; the battle with the Iro- 
quois, 149-51, 168, 208, 223-25, 
361-62, 462; Champlain and the, 
202, 207; in lowest stage of indus- 
trial life, 208; weak allies of the 
French, 214; the tall, 217; in 
vision of the past, 306, 308; Split 
Rock the boundary between the, and 



3? 



465 



466 



Analytical Index 



the Mohawks, 389. 5ee also. The 
Libretto of Hiawatha, the Mohawk, 
427-63. 

Algonquins and Hurons, Battles of, with 
the Iroquois on Lake Champlain, 2, 
4, 118; trade meeting of, with 
Hochelagas, in pageant, 87; Cham- 
plain's alliance with the, 110; on 
expedition against the Iroquois, 359; 
visit Quebec, 359; up Richelieu with 
Champlain, 359; French drawn into 
warfare of the, with the Iroquois, 
385. 

Alleghanies, Puritans had not crossed 
the, after one hundred years, 271. 

Alleghany River, French military post 
on the. 111. 

Allen, Ethan, and the Green Mountain 
Boys, Capture of Ticonderoga by, 6, 
34, 35, 57, 118, 134, 140, 144. 
160. 173-74, 328; started from 
Crown Point for Montreal and into 
British chains, 1 30 ; Benedict Arnold 
joins, 159-60; Vermonters have, 
198, 258; a home ruler, 259-60; 
daring visit of, to Albany, 260; in 
vision of the past, 305, 308; heroic 
statue of, should be erected at Ticon- 
deroga, 339. 

"America," hymn, 99-100. 

America the domain of savages, 126. 

American Catholic Church desired, 1 1 3. 

American farm houses. Hospitality at, 
404. 

American fleet. Strength of Mac- 
donough*s, 8. 

American forces. The sick of the, trans- 
ported from St. John's, 6-7; placed 
on Crab Island, 23; abandoned 



Crown Point and retired to Ticon- 
deroga, 35. 

American history. Our boys and girls 
should love, 287; interest in, stimu- 
lated, 318. 

American navy. Engagements of the, 
7, 8-9. 

American patriots. Domination of, 1 3. 

American people, Interest of, in histori- 
cal celebrations, 13-14. 

American Revolution, Victory of Eng- 
land over France made the, possible, 
124; spirit of the, 145; effect of, 
on the Canadian colonies, 245. 

American unity, 235, 260. 

Americans, Indomitable spirit of the, 
1 44-45 ; what we owe to a few 
men, 177; have a duty abroad as 
well as at home, 1 78 ; fellow- 
ship of Canadians and, 204. 

Amherst, Gen. JefFrey, commanded 
British forces as successor to Gen. 
Abercromby, 3 ; victory of, at Ticon- 
deroga, 3, 34-35, 140, 144; rebuilt 
Fort Frederic. 35, 118, 129; in the 
vision of the past, 305, 308; in com- 
mand in the valley, 396. 

Amusement features. Proper, to be pro- 
vided, 56. 

Ancient Order of Foresters attend high 
mass at Ste. Anne's Chapel, 312. 

Anderson, A., first American wood en- 
graver, 409. 

Anniversaries of historic events. Mark- 
ing of, with celebrations. 1 3. 

Anniversary of 1909, Significance of 
the, 38. 

Antaeus. The Greek myth of, 122. 

Antarctic continent. Value of the, 240. 



Analytical Index 



467 



Appalachians, The, crumpled into moun- 
tain waves, 373. 

Appropriation from Federal government. 
Secretary Root ready to recommend 
an, 25; amount of, 44, 317. 

Appropriations for New York Commis- 
sions, 11, 43, 48. 

Appropriations, Suitable, expected from 
New York State and Vermont, 25. 

Aquatic pageant suggested, 11, See 
Indian pageants. 

Aquatic races arranged for, 60. 

Armies, £Iite of the French, English and 
American, 270. 

Armstrong, L. O., manager of the In- 
dian pageants, 86, 317; additions 
made by, to Lighthall's " Master of 
Life," 88; success of, 427. 

Armstrong, Samuel Chapman, on num- 
ber of Indians living, 121. 

Arnold, Captain Benedict, seized a 
sloop on Lake Champlain, near St. 
John's. 6, 34 ; naval engagements of, 
at Valcour Island, 7, 23, 34, 57, 
119, 134, 141, 161, 227, 328; 
wrote to Gen. Gates from Schuyler s 
Island, 23; started from Crown 
Point on his naval engagements, 1 30, 
161; and returned to it from his 
Canadian campaign, 1 30 ; with Allen 
at Ticonderoga, 159-60; expedition 
of, against Quebec, a failure, 1 60, 
186; wounded, 160, 162-63; the 
Arnold of Lake Champlain, 1 63, 
1 74 ; in vision of the past, 305, 308 ; 
fleet of, at Isle La Motte, 316; en- 
countered Indians at Windmill Point, 
316. 



Arquebus, The, of Champlain, 89, 121, 
168, 208, 224-25, 304, 307, 361 ; 
began the momentous conflict, 210. 

Asia in 1609 and 1909. 329. 

Assomption's capes and bays, 2 1 7. 

Astrolabe, Champlain's, 57. 

Atkins. Rev. G. G., D.D., preached 
at First Congregational Church, Bur- 
lington, Vt., 101. 

Atlantic, The, the sea of darkness, 147. 

Atlantic coast explored by Verrazano 
and claimed for France, 1 1 0. 

Aubin, Rev. T. U., officiated at vesper 
service at Burlington on Champlain 
Sunday, 101. 

Ausable, The swift, 133, 221. 

Austin, Mr., competing architect, 345. 

Australia, 329. 

Aylmer, Mathew, 5th Lord, Governor 
of Canada, author of inscription to 
Montcalm, 183. 

Aztecs, Tribal government of, over- 
turned by Spain, 210. 



B 



ACON, Francis, Modern science 
began with, 329. 

Baiae, Bay of, 141. 

Bailey, Horace W., member of Ver- 
mont Commission, 1 6, 28, 52. 

Baker, Remember, at Fort Frederic, 
130; 258, 259; Boulder Monument 
to. 333. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, discoverer of 
the Pacific, 264. 

Banners, historic. Use of, in the decora- 
tions, 73-74. 

Banquet at Burlington, 280-97: Dec- 
orations, 280; Governor Prouty, pre- 



468 



Analytical Index 



siding, introduced Pres. Taft, 281 ; 
speech of Pres. Taft, 282-85; in- 
troduction of Gov. Hughes, 285-86; 
remarks by Gov. Hughes, 286-88; 
introduction of Ambassador Jusse- 
rand, 289; remarks of M. Jusse- 
rand, 289-90; introduction of Am- 
bassador Bryce, 291 ; remarks of 
Mr. Bryce, 291-93; presentation of 
Rodolphe Lemieux, 293; toast: 
" Canada," by Rodolphe Lemieux, 
293-97. 

Banquet Committee announced progress 
of arrangements, 62; ante-prandial 
arrangements by Messrs. Frawley and 
Foley, 249. 

Banquet, July 7th, to President Taft, 
at Hotel Champlain, 233-49: 
Decorations and guests, 233; Gover- 
nor Hughes as toastmaster, 234-35 ; 
President Taft on " The United 
States," 235-37; Ambassador Jusse- 
rand introduced, 237-38; remarks 
of Ambassador Jusserand, 238-39; 
Gov. Hughes, introducing Ambassa- 
dor Bryce, 239; remarks of Mr. 
Bryce, 239-42; Gov. Hughes, in- 
troducing Rodolphe Lemieux, 242; 
M. Lemieux on " Canada," 243-47; 
Gov. Hughes introducing Lomer 
Gouin, 247; M. Gouin on "The 
Province of Quebec," 247-49; ante- 
prandial arrangements by Banquet 
Committee, 249; post-prandial exer- 
cises of high order, 249. 

Barnes, Albert C, Address of, on old 
Crown Point, 126-31 : First visit of 
the w^hite man, 126; other points of 
historic interest, 126; Champlain's 



battle with the Iroquois, 127-28; the 
place for a monument, 1 29 ; Fort St. 
Frederic and its history, 1 29-30 ; 
possession by the English, 1 30 ; the 
roll-call of independence, 1 30-3 1 ; 
exchange of sovereignty, 131. 

Barrett, Rev. P. J., Sermon by, at 
Ste. Anne's, July 9th, 309-12: Ter- 
centenary opened with service, 309; 
glory of the Christian hero, 310; the 
religion of Champlain, 311. 

Bascom, D. C, at hearing, 341. 

Battle of Lake Champlain, in Indian 
pageant, 88, 90; tablet in com- 
memoration of, 399. 

Battle of Plattsburgh, The, 1 63-64. 

Bay of Fundy, Champlain entered, in 
1604, 38. 

Beaman, Hon. S. A., invited guest, 57. 

Beaubien established trading post at 
Chicago, 272. 

Beaufoy, Mr., author signing himself 
" A British Subject," 411; writes 
of War of 1 81 2 and defeat of Sir G. 
Prevost, 412. 

Beauharnois, Charles de la Brische, 
Marquis de, Governor-General of 
Canada, 5 ; built Fort Frederic, 1 23, 
1 29, 363 ; granted Isle La Motte to 
Sieur Pean, 316, 363; false report 
by, regarding the Schuyler family, 
392. 

Beaupre, F. O., member of Vermont 
Commission, 52. 

Bedou, Sieur, received grant of Isle La 
Motte, 316. 

Beekmantown limestone. The, 278. 

Belgium of America, The, 1 86. 



Analytical Index 



469 



Bellomont, Richard Coote, Earl of. 
Gov., sent John Schuyler with letters 
to Frontenac, 392. 

Bernhardt, Duke of Sachsen-Weimar- 
Eisenach, visited Lake Champlain, 
422; devotes a chapter to fortifica- 
tions on Isle aux Noix, 423. 

Bi-State programme of celebration exer- 
cises. Official, 63-68. 

Bienville, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur 
de, 150. 

Biography the best study for the man 
of action, 288. 

Bisaillon, interpreter, 272. 

Bixby, George F., on first battle of Lake 
Champlain, 362. 

Black River limestone. The, 378. 

Black Wolverine, loser of stag race with 
Hiawatha, 87, 428. See The 
Libretto of " Hiawatha, the Mo- 
hawk," 427-63. 

Blanchard, William, settled on Isle La 
Motte, 316. 

Blane, Capt. William Newnham, " Ex- 
cursion through the U. S. and 
Canada," 410; compares lake with 
Lake Geneva, and Alleghanies with 
the Alps, 410; on Sir George Pre- 
vost's defeat, 410. 

Block House, Fort Ticonderoga, 345. 

Bluff Point, President Taft received at, 
75 ; Governor and Mrs. Hughes re- 
ceived at, 76; arrival of representa- 
tives from Canada at, 77; advocated 
as site for monument, 340-4 1 , 342 ; 
Commission voted in favor of, 342; 
vote for, reconsidered, 343; New 
York Commission favored separate 



memorial at, 343; Committee to act 
on, 344. 

Booth, Hon. John H., member of New 
York Commission, 22, 40, 50, 52; 
on Sub-Committee, 23; on commit- 
tees, 51-52; on Committee on Liter- 
ary Exercises, 56; portrait of Cham- 
plain to be presented by, to a French 
Society at Plattsburgh, 60; on Com- 
mittee to Raise the Ro^al Savage, 
85; on Funds for a Monument Com- 
mittee, 339; moved instructions to 
Monument Committee, 342; on Com- 
mittee on a Separate Memorial, 344. 

Boquet, Charles, at Fort Ste. Anne, 
389. 

Boquet River, see River Boquet. 

Bossom, Alfred C, competing architect, 
345. 

Bougainville, Louis Antoine de, at Fort 
Ste. Anne, 33; scholar and soldier, 
181-82. 

Boulder Monument, Dedication of, 
333-34; dedicatory address of Gov- 
ernor Thomas, 333-34. 

Bourlamaque, de, ordered to abandon 
French posts in Champlain valley, 3; 
at Fort Ste. Anne, 33; burned Fort 
Frederic, 129; wounded at Ticon- 
deroga, 1 82 ; 215; in the vision of 
the past, 305, 308. 

Bourne, A. A., translator of Cham- 
plain's voyages, 359. 

Boy choir from Church of St. Peter, at 
Plattsburgh, at services at Isle La 
Motte, 303. 

Bradford, Midshipman Gerard, com- 
mander guard of honor of blue 
jackets, 76, 85. 



470 



Analytical Index 



Brant, Joseph, A descendant of, acted 
in the Indian pageant, 89. 

Brazil, Portugal in, 211. 

Breboeuf, Jean de, Jesuit martyr, 123; 
inspiration in example of, 213. 

Bressani, Joseph, Italian Jesuit, captive 
of the Iroquois, 387. 

Bridgman, Maj. Oliver B., Squadron 
"A," A. D. C, escort to the British 
Ambassador, 77. 

British Ambassador, see Bryce, James. 

British Empire, the, Remarks of James 
Bryce on. 239-40. 

British fleet. Strength of Downie's, 8-9. 

" British Grenadiers," Air of the, 204. 

" British Subject, A," [Mr. Beaufoy], 
on his visit to the Champlain region, 
411-12; War of 1812, and Gen. 
Prevost, 412. 

British supremacy, 3, 6-8, 13. 

Brooklyn Bridge, Towers of, from 
quarries of Isle La Motte, 221. 

Brotherhood, The spirit of, 1 64-65. 

Brothers Four, 222. 

Brouage rings and burns, 217; birth- 
place of Champlain, 355; fortified 
by Italian engineers, 355; taken and 
retaken, 355; salt industry at, 355. 

Bruyas, Father Jacques, labored at Fort 
Ste. Anne, 33, 389. 

Bryant, Wm. Cullen, visited the Lake 
via the canal, 4 1 8. 

Bryce, James, British Ambassador, 
guest at review at Plattsburgh Bar- 
racks, 78 ; at Ticonderoga, 1 39 ; re- 
marks of, at Ticonderoga, 1 83-85 : 
No more fighting, 183; Wolfe equal 
in fame to Montcalm, 184; a man 



of peace amid men of war, 184; 
three nations say " never do it again," 
1 85 ; remarks of, at Plattsburgh Bar- 
racks, 203-4; Mr. Root has last in- 
stead of first word, 203; our time to 
be remembered for friendship between 
nations, 204; welcome to, and music 
of, the Canadian regiments, 204; 
guest at banquet to President Taft, 
233; Governor Hughes' introduction 
of, 239; remarks of, at the banquet, 
239-42: Extent of British Empire, 
239-40; England settled the United 
States, 240; admiration for the 
French, 240; value of commemora- 
tions, 240; men to be remembered, 
24 1 ; tribute to Champlain, 24 1 ; the 
United States and Canada, 241-42; 
the reign of peace, 242 ; Vermont's 
official welcome to, 255; remarks of, 
at Burlington, 263~68: Daring of 
the explorers, 263; Champlain and 
Hudson, 264; wonderful line of ex- 
plorers, Champlain one of the best, 
264 ; " the gate of the country," 265 ; 
Green Mountain boys and girls, 265 ; 
defense of individual right, 265 ; the 
present and Champlain's dream, 266; 
the place of peace and quiet, 266; 
the Switzerland of America, 267; a 
region to be conserved, 267-68; Gov. 
Hughes on, 286-87; remarks at 
Burlington banquet, 291-93: Thanks, 
291, 292; the fish of Lake Cham- 
plain, 291-92; Vermonters and 
Scotchmen, 293; returned to Wash- 
ington, 297; represented Great Bri- 
tain, 318. 



Analytical Index 



471 



Buckham, Matthew Henry, accepted 
tablet for University of Vermont, 
335. 
Buffalo Historical Society, The home 

of the, 326. 
Bulwagga Bay, claimed as place of 
Champlain's fight with the Iroquois, 
lA; 167. 
Burdick, Mr., on committees, 51. 
Burgoyne, Gen. John, Expedition of, on 
Lake Champlain, 8, 134; defeat of, 
at Saratoga, 8; censured in Parlia- 
ment, 8; rested his army at Cumber- 
land Head, 24; occupied Point au 
Fer in 1777, 24; invested Fort 
Frederic, 35; at Crown Point after 
Saratoga, 131; captured Fort Ticon- 
deroga and fortified Mount Defiance, 
140, 161-62, 174; failure of cam- 
paign of, 162; Burke on employ- 
ment of Indians by, 1 62 ; feasted by 
Indians, 8, 222, 229; in the vision 
of the past, 305, 308. 
Burial ground on Crab Island, 23. 
Burke, Edmund, opposed to confirma- 
tion of French grants, 1-2, 363; 
censured Burgoyne for employing In- 
dians, 8; remarks of, in Parliainent, 
162. 
Burke, Mayor James E., reviewed 
parade, 253-54; Burlington's wel- 
come, 256-58; to President and 
guests, 256; 300 years ago and now, 
256-57; deep waterway project, 
257; freedom of the city, 258. 
Burke, Bp. Thomas M. A., officiating 
deacon at vesper service at Burling- 
ton on Champlain Sunday, 101; 



celebrated high mass at Ste. Anne's 
shrine. Isle La Motte, 3 1 2. 
Burlingame, Anson, in House of Com- 
mons, 1 78. 
Burlington, Celebration exercises to be 
held at, 27, 366; rehgious services 
in cathedral at, 11; joint meeting of 
Commissions at, 55, 58, 340; fund 
of $20,000 raised at, 60; Bi-State 
programme of celebration exercises at, 
66; Indian pageants given at, 86; 
services at, on Champlain Sunday, 
101, 253. — The celebration at Bur- 
lington: Local fund and programme, 
253-54; Independence Day, 253; 
the French societies, 253-54; Patri- 
otic and Fraternal Society Day, 254; 
President's day, July 8th, 254-55; 
Literary exercises. Gov. Prouty pre- 
siding, 255-79: Vermont's official 
welcome, by Gov. Prouty, 255-56; 
Burlington's welcome, by Mayor 
Burke, 256-58; introduction of Gov. 
Hughes, 258; remarks of Gov. 
Hughes, 259-61; Ambassador Jus- 
serand presented, 26 1 ; remarks of 
M. Jusserand, 262-3; the British 
Ambassador presented, 263; remarks 
of James Bryce, 263-68; Rodolphe 
Lemieux presented, 268; remarks of 
M. Lemieux, 269-74; Bliss Carman 
introduced, 274; The Champlain 
country, an ode, read by Bliss Car- 
man, 274-77; President Taft pre- 
sented, 278; address by President 
Taft, 278-79; parade of the day re- 
viewed, 280; President Taft wit- 
nessed Indian pageant of Hiawatha, 
280; Commemoration dinner at gym- 



472 



Analytical Index 



nasium of University of Vermont, 
280-97; local societies from, at Isle 
La Motte, 312; joint meeting of 
Commissions at, 340; Pres. James 
Monroe at, 407; Miss Frances 
Wright on, 408; described by Mr. 
Matthews, 409-10; Capt. Blane on, 
410; Gen. Lafayette at laying of a 
cornerstone of college building in, 
410-11; all tourists have only praise 
for, 416. 

Burlington, The, lake steamer, praised, 
417, 418. 

Burlington The, steam cutter, took part 
in the naval celebration, 76, 85. 

Burlington Commercial Club, The Com- 
missions guests of the, 25. 

Burnt offering. The, 282, 289. 

Butt, Capt. A. W., U. S. A, escort to 
Pres. Taft, 77; at banquet to Pres. 
Taft, 233. 

CABOTS, The, came and left no 
trace, 209. 264. 

Cady, Daniel L., Poem: Champlain 
and Lake Champlain, 2 1 5-29. 

Caesar a man of letters, 181. 

Campbell, Laird of Inverawe, 1 72. 

Canada, French occupancy of north- 
eastern provinces of, 1 ; might have 
included part of New York, 2; ex- 
pedition of Montgomery and Schuyler 
against, 5, 6; Gen. Sullivan aban- 
dons conquest of, 6; loss of, to the 
French, 111; how held fast by Eng- 
land, 124; futile plan to seize, 152; 
campaign against, planned, 153; Eng- 



lish authority established in, 158 
prosperity of, is our prosperity, 285 
toast: " Canada," by M. Lemieux 
293-97; proud of Mr. Taft. 294 
Canadian citizens in United States 
and in Civil War. 294-95 ; a com 
mon language and literature, 295 
the dream of Hudson and Champlain 
296; Champlain governor of, 327 
conquest of, ended French domination 
in Champlain valley, 395. 

Czmada, Dominion of, Sub-Committee 
to bring the attention of, to the celebra- 
tion, 22; representatives from, should 
be invited, 25, 26, 366; celebration 
to be held at some point in, 27; 
Premier and Governor-General of, in- 
vited, 58; military organizations from, 
in the celebration, 58, 62, 78, 319; 
church dignitaries from, 62; repre- 
sented by its executive head, 63; re- 
presentatives from, with military aides 
in uniform, at the review at Platls- 
burgh Barracks. 78 ; English in name, 
French in tradition, 147-48; home 
of two races. 1 65 ; home of a great 
people, 240; Rodolphe Lemieux on, 
243-47; Quebec Tercentenary, 243 ; 
exchange of settlers. 244; commer- 
cial relations of. with United States, 
245 ; debt of, to American Revolu- 
tion, 245 ; prosperity of, 246. 

Canadian boundary line. Conference of 
Govs. Moore and Carleton over, at 
Windmill Point, 1, 24. 

Canadian regiments, James Bryce on the 
welcome to the, 204; reviewed by 
President of the United States, 319. 



Analytical Index 



473 



Canadian shield. The, 373; edge of, 
along the lower St, Lawrence, 374. 

Canadians, urged to send delegates to 
the Continental Congress, 160; Ver- 
mont's welcome to, 255; settled the 
West, 2 72 ; in sympathy with the 
Indians, 272; Gov Hughes on, 287; 
in the United States, and in Civil 
War, 294; on Isle La Motte at- 
tacked by Indians, 3 1 6. 

Canadians and Americans, Fellowship 
of. 204, 230, 242. 

Caniaderi guarunte, Indian name of Lake 
Champlain, 141; "the gate of the 
country," 264-65, 327. 363, 389. 

Cannon, Joseph G., unable to share in 
the exercises, 68. 

Canoe express. Speed of the, 392. 

Canseau's coast, 215. 

Cantlie, Lt.-Col. George S., in com- 
mand of Fifth Royal Canadian High- 
landers, 78, 84. 

Cap Tourmente, 2 1 7. 

Cape Breton. Champlain at, 356. 

Cape Cod, Champlain at, 357. 

Carignan-Salieres Regiment at dedica- 
tion of Fort Ste. Anne, 4; helped 
build the fort, 315. 388. 

Carillon, Chime of bells, in Indian tongue 
Cheonderoga, " Place where echoes 
dwell," 226. 

Carleton, Governor Sir Guy, Forces un- 
der, assembled on the Richelieu River, 

6, 1 60, 161; occupied Crown Point, 

7, 119, 1 30 ; withdrew troops to 
Canada. 8, 161; conference of, with 
Gov Henry Moore, on Canadian 
boundary, 24; escaped from Mon- 
treal and defeated Americans at 



Quebec, 1 60 ; naval engagement of, 
with Arnold, 161; with whole force 
in Ticonderoga, 161. 

Carman, Bliss, The Champlain coun- 
try, an ode, 274-77. 

Carroll, John, prelate, in vision of the 
past, 306. 308. 

Cartier, Jacques, discovered Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, and ascended it to Hoche- 
laga, 110, 121, 373; sailed from 
St. Malo, 150; left no trace. 209. 
210; great explorer, 264; Cham- 
plain the equal of, 304, 306; took 
possession under name of New France, 
355; ruins of settlement by, found 
by Champlain, 358. 

Cathay, Dream of pathway to, fulfilled, 
270. 

Catholic Order of Foresters attend high 
mass at Ste. Anne's Chapel, 312. 

Catholic Summer School at Cliff Haven, 
Portrait of Champlain presented to 
the, 60; religious service at, on 
Champlain Sunday, 101-9; address 
by the Rt. Rev. Dennis J. McMahon, 
102-3; sermon by Cardinal GIB- 
BONS. 103-9. 

Caughnawaga, Indian players from, 88; 
427. 

Caughnawaga's dream. The, 229. 

Cayugas, one of the Five nations, 208. 

Celebration, The, Problems of, 55 ; 
satisfaction of the puWic with, 56; 
enthusiasm for, 6 1 . — General feat- 
ures: Military and naval, and the 
Indian pageants, 73-90; six acts to 
the drama, 73; flags of America and 
of France, 73-74; Report of Mili- 
tary and Naval Committee, 75-79: 



474 



Analytical Index 



The Army. 75-76, 79-81; the 
Navy, 76; the National Guard, 76, 
81-84; the Canadian Troops, 78, 
84-85; the review at Plattsburgh 
Barracks, 78-79; the naval exhibit, 
85-86; the Indian pageants at Lake 
Champlain, 86-88; '' Spectator " on, 
in the Outlook, 88-90; Rodolphe 
Lemieux on, 243; a unique and 
many-sided memorial, 279; Gov. 
Hughes on the value of, 286-287; 
M. Jusserand on the, 289; closing 
exercises of, at Isle La Motte, 314" 
35 ; chief fruit of, and satisfaction 
in. 335. 

Celebration project. Evolution of the, 
13-18; some notable celebrations, 
13-14; motives for, 14; to com- 
memorate events of important his- 
toric lore, 14-15; Frank Lascelles 
consulted, 1 5 ; first official actions 
taken by Vermont, 15-16; members 
of Vermont Commission, 1 6 ; Report 
of the First New York Commission, 
21-40; sundry suggestions for, 27; 
what it is proposed to celebrate, 36; 
significance of the anniversary of 
1909, 38; international character of 
the, 38; Federal recognition and aid, 
43-44; legislation and organization, 
47-52 ; unusual features presented by 
proposed, 55. 

Central American Republics, 329. 

Chambly, a post forty leagues from St. 
Frederic, 394; Stansbury describes 
fort at, 409 

Chambrun, Capt. de, military attache of 
the French Ambassador, guest at the 
review at Plattsburgh Barracks, 78. 



" Champlain ; a Drama in Three Acts," 

by J. M. Harper, 59. 
Champlain, a poem (JOHN ErsKINE), 

323-26. 

Champlain and Lake Champlain; a 
poem (Daniel L. Cady), 215-29: 
Nouvelle France, 215; tales of the 
explorers, 215-17; voyages of 
Champlain, 217-18; discovery of 
Lake Champlain, 219-22; battle 
with the Iroquois, 223-25 ; Indian 
place names, 226; the Tubal Cains, 
226; the Lake, 227; the battle at 
Valcour, 227-28; the Valley, 228; 
the war feast at Boquet, 228-29; a 
prismed pendant, 229. 

Champlain, Antoine, sea captain, 
father of Samuel, 355. 

Champlain canal. The enlarged, 336; 
lines of packets through the, 4 1 8. 

Champlain country. The; an ode 
(Bliss Carman), 274-77. 

Champlain discovering the lake which 
bears his name, the subject of an In- 
dian pageant, 86. 

Champlain-Hudson valley. Slow tilt of 
the entire, 382. 

Champlain Memorial, The proposed, 
339-49: Committee of N. Y. Com- 
mission on, 339; Sec. Hill submitted 
a review of the sites for, in the val- 
ley. 339-40; selecting Isle La Motte, 
340; Bluff Point urged upon the 
Commission, 340; Gov. Hughes con- 
sulted on, 34 1 ; report of State Arch- 
itect Ware on, 34 1 ; claims of Ticon- 
deroga. 341 ; advantages of Mt. De- 
fiance, 341-42; other sites considered, 
342; N. Y. Commission voted for 



Analytical Index 



475 



Bluff Point. 342 ; reconsidered. 343 ; 
resolution of Vermont Commission. 
343; appropriation by N. Y. Com- 
mission for joint memorial at Crown 
Point, 343; Vermont Commission to 
contribute balance of money. 343; 
gift of the site of forts at Crown Point 
to State of New York. 344 ; Act of 
acceptance passed by Legislature. 
344-45 ; lighthouse selected as suit- 
able form of memorial. 345 ; archi- 
tects submitted designs. 346; de- 
scription of design selected, 346-47; 
Bill passed by Congress authorizing 
erection, 348; form of memorial 
near Plattsburgh under consideration. 
348-49. 
Champlain, Samuel, first white man to 
set foot on soil of New York, 1 , 32. 
126. 142, 362, 386; failed to claim 
territory by right of discovery, I ; 
firearms of, brought enmity of the 
Iroquois upon the French, 2, 89, 
121, 127-28, 346. 386; the 
aborigines a startling revelation to, 
4, 363; celebrations in memory of, 
1 3 ; opened first chapter in history of 
New York State. 3 1 ; followed by 
missionary and trader, 31 ; monu- 
ment to, and celebration at Cham- 
plain. N. Y., July 4, 1907, 37-38; 
anniversaries of, elsewhere, 38; erec- 
tion of a permanent memorial to, 55; 
astrolabe of, 57; commemoration 
medal bearing portrait of, "Struck, 60; 
oil portraits of, by Mrs. L. Kirby-Par- 
rish, 60; Cardinal Gibbons on dis- 
coveries of, 107 110; sound colonial 
policy of, 110; heroic deeds of, 118; 



the " Father of New France," 121, 
150, 269; Crown Point the place for 
a monument to, 1 29 ; the valorous, 
1 32. 1 33. 1 35 ; the man of charac- 
ter. 143; the lesson of, 146; and 
party of discovery, 147-48; had no 
vision of the future, 148; at once 
harbinger of war and discoverer, 
148; at the battle with the Iroquois, 
1 49-5 1 , 224 ; impersonation of civ- 
ilization, 149; incarnation of genius 
of France, 149; birth and charac- 
ter of, 150; Parkman on, 150; his 
account of the fight. 151; the White 
Chevalier, 167; Seth Low's query as 
to place of battle of, with Iroquois, 
and note on, 176; navigator, ex- 
plorer, honest man, 180; James 
Bryce on, 1 84 ; a man of all nations, 
185-86; faith inspired, 192; Gov. 
Hughes on, 1 99-200 ; Jusserand ex- 
tends thanks of France for honors 
done to, 201, 203; the colonial spirit 
of, in President Taft, 202; hated a 
useless quarrel, 202 ; first proposed a 
Panama canal, 206; belongs to hu- 
manity, 206; at Quebec. 210. 213; 
inspiration in example of. 213; honor 
to, and the chivalry of France, 2 1 4, 
234, 237; the Brouage sailor, 217; 
the man, 218; the " ships " and 
" crew " of, 219; discovers Lake 
Champlain, 219-23; an audience of, 
with Henry IV symbolized on a float 
in parade at Plattsburgh, 231 ; the 
steadiness of, 238-39; a colonizer, 
238; died in the city he had founded, 
238; tribute of James Bryce to, 241, 
264-65 ; of Rodolphe Lemieux, 



476 



Analytical Index 



243, 269; the founder of the Can- 
adian nation, tribute of Lomer Gouin 
to. 248-49; daring of, 263; might 
have met Hudson, 264; one of the 
ablest and best of explorers, 264 ; the 
dream of, and the present, 266; be- 
longs to the world, 268; flags of 
three nations honor, 269 ; the founder 
of New France, 275 ; site for a mon- 
ument to, 236, 279; if Champlain 
had foreseen, 286; the high-minded- 
ness of, 288; a right man to com- 
memorate, 289; statesman and mis- 
sionary, 296; Rt. Rev. Prevel's 
tribute to, 304-6, 306-8; the Chris- 
tian hero, 310-11; the reHgion of, 
311; the spot on which Champlain 
landed in Vermont, 313; H. W. 
Hill on, 317; voyager, scholar, sol- 
dier, 327; navigator and explorer, 
346; bronze statue of, 347; famil- 
iar with fortifications at Brouage, 
355-56; learned practical naviga- 
tion, 356; visited Panama and Mex- 
ico, 356; E. A. Dix on visit to Mex- 
ico, 356; to Havana and Morro 
Fortress, 356; voyage with Pont- 
grave and Prevert, 356; up St. Law- 
rence to Falls of St. Louis, 356; re- 
turned to Havre de Grace, 357; an- 
nual voyages of, 357; explored the 
Atlantic coast and entered Plymouth 
harbor, 357; made maps and draw- 
ings, 357; lieutenant of De Monts' 
expedition, 357; left Quebec writh 
party of Montagnais, 359; tells his 
own story of discovery of the Lake, 
359-60; of the battle with the Iro- 
quois, 361-62; named the Lake, 



362 ; Governor of Canada till 1 629, 
362 ; first white man in Vermont, 
362, 386; visited Georgian Bay, 
364; first white man to see Lake 
Huron, 364; wintered with the 
Hurons, 365 ; wounded near Onon- 
daga Lake, 365 ; surrendered to 
English, 365 ; reappointed governor 
of Colony of Quebec, 365 ; death, 
365; accomplished more than any 
explorer of his age, 365 ; Park- 
man on, 366; came as a war- 
rior, 385-86; holds priority as 
explorer, 386; initial expedition of, 
barren, 386. 
Champlain Sunday, 93-113: Order of 
service for, by Rev. John M. Thomas, 
93-101 ; vesper service on lake front 
at Burlington, 101; other services, 
101; impressive service at the Sum- 
mer School grounds. Cliff Haven, 
101-9; sermon by Cardinal GIB- 
BONS, 103-9; services at the shrine 
of Ste. Anne, Isle La Motte, 109, 
302-4; in Pittsburgh, sermon by 
Coadjutor Bishop RiCHARD H. 

Nelson, 109-13. 

Champlain Tercentenary Memorial 
Lighthouse at Crown Point, N. V., 
Description of, 346-47. 

Champlain Valley, Episodes in the his- 
tory of the (Frank Hayward Sev- 
erance), 385-400: Its aboriginal 
history, 385 ; Champlain less an ex- 
plorer than a warrior, 385-86; 
gained for the French the enmity of 
the Iroquois federation, 386; the sec- 
ond episode, the cassocked priest, 
386-88; Jogues, Goupil, and Cow- 



Analytical Index 



477 



ture. captives of the Iroquis, 387; 
Jogues' second visit and death, 387- 
88; third episode, the founding of 
Fort Ste. Anne, 388 ; de Tracy's ex- 
pedition, 388; de Courcelles, de Sal 
lieres, and other soldiers, 389 
Fathers Fremin, Pierron and Mgr. 
Laval at Fort Ste. Anne, 389 
the December expedition, 389; abo- 
riginal names of the Lake, 389-90 
the Dutch and English in the, 390 
spies from Connecticut to Lake 
Herocoies, 390; Arent van Corlaer 
drowned, 390; French and Indian 
expedition against Schenectady, 390- 
91 ; Capt. John Schuyler's raid, 
391 ; 1691 expedition of Maj. Peter 
Schuyler, 39 1 ; French and Indian 
raid on Mohawks and pursuit by 
Peter Schuyler in 1693, 391 ; French 
and Indians pursued by Gov. Fletcher 
in 1696, 391-92; messengers carry 
treaty from New York to Quebec, 
392 ; Capt. Schuyler bearing letters 
from Bellomont to Frontenac, 392 ; 
services of the Schuyler family, 392 ; 
neutral territory ignored by French 
in building Fort St. Frederic, 392- 
93; governors of New York recom- 
mended building a fort on the Lake, 
393; accounts of Fort St. Frederic, 
393-95; Dieskau and Johnson at 
Lake George, 395; siege and mas- 
sacre at Fort William Henry, 395; 
Abercromby repulsed by Montcalm, 
395-96; French retreat before Am- 
herst, 396; Ethan Allen in posses- 
sion of Ticonderoga, 396; French 
marauding parties, 396; French set- 



tlement in 1731 at Crown Point, 
397; French and English land 
grants, 397; contest between New 
York and New Hampshire over land 
grants, 398; military post at Platts- 
burgh, 398; Macdonough National 
Military Park established, 398: in- 
scriptions on tablets, 399. 
Champlain Valley, French forts and 
settlements in the, 1 ; abandoned, 3 ; 
French occupancy of, 150 years, 3, 
363; British possession of, and mil- 
itary expeditions through the, 3-4, 
363 ; three nations contended for, 4 ; 
first settlement of whites in, 4; in a 
state of ceaseless inquietude, 8; sig- 
nificance of history of, 13; people of, 
desired historical celebration, 1 3 ; rich 
in historic lore, 15; a highway of 
war and peace, 1 7 ; Resolution that a 
permanent memorial be erected at some 
point in the, 26; historic importance 
of the, 31-32; waters of, the high- 
way of notable expeditions, 32, 364 ; 
described by Peter Kalm and others, 
36-37; development of the, 37; his- 
tory of the, belongs to that of three 
great nations, 38; meetings of Com- 
missioners held at various places in the, 
55; great scope presented in historic 
events of the, 57; co-operation of 
people of the, 61 ; the heroes of the, 
146; the Belgium of America, 186; 
Lomer Gouin on, 247; one of the 
hallowed grounds of the country, 
270; the valley of beauty, the high- 
way of war, 328; one of the historic 
portions of the continent, 363; mili- 
tary and naval engagements in, dur- 



478 



Analytical Index 



ing Revolutionary War, 364; thrill- 
ing events in the, must be recalled, 
367; shares a common geologic birth 
and progress with the St. Lawrence, 
372; birth of the, 374-75; second 
stage in history of, 376; open sea- 
way through, most ancient, 376; ele- 
vated beyond reach of salt waters, 
376; dark ages in history of the, 
376-77; ancient rock beds, 377-79; 
the Great Glacier scored and scoured 
the, 379; covered by Lakes Albany 
and Vermont, 380; sunk below sea 
level, 381 ; raised a thousand feet, 
381-82. 
Champlain Valley, What early travelers 
said of the (Frank Hayward Sev- 
erance), 403-23: Isaac Weld, 
403-6; Timothy Dwight. 406-7; 
James Monroe, 407-8; Miss Frances 
Wright, 408-9; P. Stansbury, 409; 
Mr. Matthews, 409-10; Capt. W. 
N. Blane. 410; Gen. Lafayette, 
410-11; "A British Subject." 
411-12; Capt. Basil Hall, 412-13; 
James Stuart, 413; Godfrey T. 
Vigne, 414; Rev. Andrew Reed, 
414; Charles A. Murray, 414-15; 
Capt. Hamilton, 415; Caroline H. 
Gilman, 415-16; Joseph J. Gurney, 
416-17; John R. Godley, 417; 
Augustus E. Silliman, 417-18; Hol- 
ley's "American Tourist," 418; 
Wm. C. Bryant, 418; James Dixon, 
418-19; Ma j. John Thornton, 4 1 9- 
20; Edmund Patten. 420-21; 
Alex. Marjoribanks, 421 ; Julius G. 
Medley. 422; H. H. Vivian, 422; 
Bernhardt. Duke of Sachsen- Weimar- 



Eisenach, 422-23; J. G. Kohl, 423; 
Lake Champlain Association, 423; 
1 2th annual meeting of New York 
Historical Association, 423-24. 

Champlain village. Statue of Champlain 
unveiled in, 37. 

Champlain's battle with the Iroquois, 2, 
89, 121, 127-28, 362; the sub- 
ject of an Indian pageant, 86; the 
site of, 127-28. 

Chanler, Lewis Stuyvesant, member of 
First Commission, 22. 40. 

Chapel. The. and the mass. 332. 

Chateaubriand, Millet's statue of, at 
St. Malo, 150. 

Chatham censured Burgoyne for em- 
ploying Indians, 8. 

Chaumont, Joseph Marie, ChevaHer de, 
389. 

Chazy, Sieur de, at Isle La Motte, 315; 
killed by the Mohawks, 388; river 
named for, 388. 

Chazy hmestone. The, 378. 

Cheonderoga, " Place where echoes 
dwell," Indian name of Carillon, 
226. 

Cheverus Jean Louis Anne Madeleine 
Lefebvre de, prelate, in vision of the 
past, 306, 308. 

Chicago, Beaubien's trading post on site 
of, 272. 

Chime of bells. Carillon, 226. 

Chimney Point, Settlement at, 5, 127, 
129-30, 328; a few houses and a 
tavern at, 405 ; Timothy Dwight 
found one decayed house at, 407. 

China turning from her slumber, 330. 

Chouteau, Auguste, built first house in 
St. Louis, 272. 



Analytical Index 



479 



Christianity first introduced by Cham- 
plain, 315. 

" Chronological History of the Cham- 
plain Valley, A," by Mrs. George 
Fuller Tuttle, 59. 

Chub, The, in English squadron at Cum- 
berland Bay, 163, 164. 

Church, The, and the Stale in the Philip- 
pines, 195. 

Churchill, Sylvester, once owner of 
Crown Point, 32. 

Citizenship of French descent. Our, 201. 

City Hall Park, Burlington, Decorations 
at, 254. 

Civic parade with historic floats reviewed 
by mayor at Plattsburgh, 231 ; re- 
viewed by church officials at St. 
Peter's College and addressed by H. 
A. Dubuque, 231. 

Civil War, Soldiers from Canada in, 
294-95; from Isle La Motte, 317. 

Civil War veterans greeted by President 
Taft, 280. 

Civilization passes in the vision of the 
past, 306, 308 ; felicitates Champlain, 
306, 308; first introduced by Cham- 
plain, 315. 

Clarke, Dr. John Mason, requested to 
prepare a paper on the geology of the 
Champlain Valley, 62. 

Clarke, Dr John Mason. — The 

geology of the Champlain Valley, 

371-82. 
Clarke, George, Lt.-Gov., recommended 

building a fort on Lake Champlain, 

393. 
Clergy, Eminent, of United States and 

Canada, at Isle La Motte, 314. 



Cliff Haven, Suggestion that religious 
services be held at, 27; Service at 
Catholic Summer School at, on 
Champlain Sunday, 101-9: Addresr 
of Rt. Rev. Dennis J. McMahon. 
102-3; sermon by Cardinal GIB- 
BONS, 103-9; Celebration at Catho- 
lic School of America at, 191-96: 
Greeting by Pres. Dennis J. Mc- 
Mahon, 191-92; address of Gov- 
ernor Hughes, 192-93; address of 
President Taft, 1 93-95 ; address of 
Cardinal Gibbons, 196. 

Clinton, Gov. George, energetic for a 
fort on Lake Champlain, 393. 

Clinton, Hon. George, grandson of 
DeWitt Clinton, an invited guest, 57. 

Cloarec, Mgr., of the Diocese of Bur- 
lington, 303. 

Cloven Way, The, Sobapsqua, Split 
Rock. 226. 

Colchester's three-pointed spear, 221. 

Collins, Rt. Rev. Bp. John J., at service 
at Cliff Haven on Champlain Sunday, 
102, 103. 

Colonial Army, Conclusive victory of 
the, 143. 

Colonial governors short-sighted, 2 1 3. 

Colonial legislatures, 2 1 3. 

Colonial movements lacked responsi- 
bility, 213. 

Colonists, The, in arms, 158-64; 
Franklin's plan for union of, 158-59; 
the enmity of kinship, 159; struggle 
to command the Lake, 159-61; 
Arnold and Allen at Ticonderoga, 
159-60; Montgomery captured Mon- 
treal, 160; Arnold's attack on Que- 
bec a failure, 1 60-6 1 . 



480 



Analytical Index 



Colton, Rt. Rev. Bp. Charles H., at 
service at Cliff Haven on Champlain 
Sunday, 102, 103. 

Columbia College, once owner of prop- 
erty at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, 
32-33. 407. 

Columbia University, Joint meeting of 
committees at, 345-46. 

Columbian Exposition in 1893 at Chi- 
cago, 13-14. 

Columbus, Christopher, heads a wonder- 
ful line, 264; Champlain the equal 
of, 304 

Commemoration medal v^th portrait of 
Champlain struck, 60. 

Commemorations, Value of, 240-41. 

Committee on Crown Point Memorial, 
recommended three architects, 345; 
joint meeting at Columbia University 
selected design, 345-46. 

Committee on Literary Exercises named, 
56; aims of the, 56-57. 

Committees appointed by the Commis- 
sion, 51-52. 

Common people. Reign of the, 331. 

Communities on both sides of the lake 
claimed consideration, 55. 

Conference of Governors, 261. 

Conference of sub-committees of the 
Commissions with Secretary of State, 
Elihu Root, 25-26, 43. See also 
Federal recognition and Sub-Com- 
mittee. 

Confiance, The, of the English fleet at 
Pittsburgh, 163, 164, 174. 

Congregation of St. Edmond, Fathers of, 
at services at Isle La Motte, 302-3. 



Congress, The, Committee on suitable use 
of the remains of, at Chimney Point, 
Vt., 86. 

Congress, The, steamboat, 411. 

Connecticut sent men against the French, 
214. 

Connecticut, Basin of the, 265. 

Conquistadores, The Spanish, 210. 

Contents, v. 

Continent, The first, 373. 

Continental Congress, The Great Je- 
hovah and the, 35, 144, 160, 174. 

Continental Congress praised Benedict 
Arnold's naval engagements on Lake 
Champlain, 7; Montgomery urged 
Canadians to send delegates to the, 
160. 

Continuous show. A, 278, 279, 287. 

Control, The strife for, 1-9. 

Convent of the Incarnation, Mother In- 
tendant of the, 375. 

Conway, Hon. Thomas F., Assistance 
rendered by, 61. 

Corlaer, or Curler, Arent van, a founder 
of Schenectady, 390; drowned near 
Split Rock, 390; gave name to Lake, 
390. 

Corlaer, Indian name of governors of 
New York, 390. 

Corlaer's Bay, now Peru Bay, 390. 

Corlaer's Lake, 392. 

Corlaer, Part of, taken by a young Hol- 
lander, 88. 

Corlaer's Lake, name given to Lake 
Champlain, 390. 

Corn dance, or harvest festival, 87-88. 
5ee, also. The Libretto of Hiawatha, 
the Mohawk. 427-63. 



Analytical Index 



481 



Q)rlez, The skiffs of, 186; a great ex- 
plorer, 264; Champlain the equal of, 
304. 306. 

G)sby, Governor William, recommended 
building a fort on Lake Champlain, 
393. 

Courcelle, Daniel xle Remy, Sieur de, 
governor of New France, 389; cor- 
respondence of, 390. 

Coureurs de bois. The, 270; descend- 
ants of, overran the West, 272; 
acted as interpreters, 272; figure of a, 
on Champlain memorial, 347. 

Courtemanche, leader of band against 
Mohaw^k towns, 391. 

Couture, Guillaume, missionary, cap- 
tured by the Iroquois, taken to Three 
Rivers, 387. 

Coward spirit. Legend of the, 389. 

Cowles, Col. Calvin D., member Conv 
mittee on parades, 5 1 ; assistance ren- 
dered by, 61 ; in command of all 
United States troops, and Grand Mar- 
shal at Plattsburgh, 75. 230. 232. 

Crab Island. Historic burial-ground on, 
23; hospital on. 398; now Macdon- 
ough National Military Park, 398. 

Crespel, Rev. Emanuel, on Fort St. 
Frederic and his Lake journey, 394~ 
95 ; says scalping began at Crown 
Point. 394. 

Crete revealing wonders of Minoan age, 
366. 

Crockett, Walter H.. on Battle of Lake 
Champlain, 8-9; member of Ver- 
mont Commission, 16, 28, 52; at 
conference wdth Secretary Root, 25, 
43; on Sub-Committee of Vermont 
32 



Commission, 29; "History of Lake 
Champlain," by, 59; given hearing 
on site before New York Commission, 
342 ; at joint meeting with New York 
Commission, 345. 

Crossett. Lt. Frederick M., Eighth Artil- 
lery District, A. D. C. escort to the 
representatives from Canada, 77. 

Crothers, Rev. S. M., preached at the 
Unitarian Church in Burlington, Vt., 
101. 

Crown Point, Loss of. by the French in 
1759, 3, 118, 363; capture of, by 
Colonel Warner. 6. 34, 119; troops 
assembled at, 6; the sick transported 
to, in leaky open boats, 6-7 ; occupied 
by the British, 7, 119, 328, 396; 
General Gates at, 8; visited by the 
Commissioners, 25 ; celebration exer- 
cises to be held at, 27, 366; most 
southern fortifications of the French 
at, 32, 35, 129; successive ownership 
of, 32; ruins of. best preserved ex- 
amples of their kind. 35, 131; fire- 
works on successive evenings at. 60; 
programme of exercises at. 62. 63; 
Indian pageants given at, 86; Arnold 
set forth from, 119; Burgoyne held, 
119; Champlain's battle with Iroquois 
near, 121, 123, 127-28; first occu- 
pied by the French, 123-24, 152; 
claims direct association with Cham- 
plain, 126; French abandoned, 130; 
third stage of, possession by the Eng- 
lish. 130; Amherst's Fort. 130; roll- 
call of Americans at, 1 30-3 1 ; no bat- 
tle at. but exchange of sovereignty, 
131; a menacing stronghold, 153; Sir 
William Johnson's expedition against. 



482 



Analytical Index 



153-56; Battle of, symbolized on 
float in parade at Plattsburgh, 231 ; 
as a site for the memorial, 342; Act 
of Legislature accepting gift of lands 
at, 344-45; site of first battle of 
Lake Champlain, 362; origin of the 
name, 393; Dieskau marched from, 
to Lake George, 395 ; strengthened 
by the French, 395 ; first French set- 
tlement at, 397; Isaac Weld de- 
scribes condition of, 404; most ad- 
vantageous for a mihtary post, 404; 
Timothy Dwight found a gloomy, 
melancholy spot, 406-7. 5ee, also. 
Fort Frederic. 

Crown Point Forts, Bi-State programme 
of celebration exercises at, 63 ; Mon- 
day, July 5th. the Celebration, 1 1 7- 
36: Sham battle, 117; Indian 
pageants, 117; remarks of W. C. 
Witherbee introducing Gov. Hughes, 
117-18; address of Gov. Hughes, 
118-19; gateway to a continent, 
118; historic names, 118; war- 
like expeditions, 118; Fort St. Fred- 
eric, 118; in hands of French and 
English by turn, and finally American, 
119; address of Seth Low, 120- 
25 ; address of ALBERT C. Barnes 
on "Old Crown Point,' 126-31; 
Song for the Tercentenary of Lake 
Champlain, by CliNTON ScollARD, 
1 32-36 ; review of Tenth Regiment, 
N. G., by Gov. Hughes, Indian 
pageants, and fireworks at, 1 36 ; 
Gov. Hughes on celebration at, 198. 

Crown Point Forts, Site and ruins of, 
presented to the State, 1 1 7. 



Crown Point Lighthouse Reservation, 
Bill authorizing the erection of memo- 
rial on, 348. 

Crystalline rocks. The old. 374, 377; 
on shores and walls of the Lake, 
377. 

Cumberland Bay, Macdonough's victory 
in, 8-9, 23, 34, 141. 163-64. 

Cumberland Head, Burgoyne's army 
rested at, 24 ; there should be a statue 
of Macdonough at, 340. 

Cumberland Head and Macdonough's 
victory, 126, 163. 

Cummings, Dr. William A. E., member 
of committees, 51, 52; assistance ren- 
dered by, 6 1 ; at hearing, 34 1 . 

Curler, or Corlaer, Arent van, a founder 
of Schenectady, 390. 

Cutting, Sewell S., Selection from poem 
of. 364. 

DARTMOUTH, LORD, to Gov. 
Tryon, on confirmation of French 
land grants, 1 , 363. 

Daughters of the American Revolution, 
Resolutions of the Buffalo Chapter 
of the, 29-30; members of Belle- 
view Chapter of, at Isle La Motte, 
302. 

D'Azy, Lt. Benoist, naval attache of the 
French Ambassador, at Plattsburgh 
Barracks, 78; at Isle La Motte, 302; 
remarks of, 320-2 1 ; in English, 
320; in French, 320-21. 

DeChastes, Bold, 215. 

De la Barre, see La Barre. 

De Monts, Efforts of, for a New France 
unsuccessful, 210; brave. 215; 



Analytical Index 



483 



Champlain, lieutenant under, 35 7 ; re- 
ported to, at Fontainebleau, 362. 

De Soto came and left no trace, 209; 
first reached the Mississippi, 264, 
271. 

Deep waterway project. The, 257. 

Deerfield, The attack on, 396. 

Dellius, Godfrey, accompanied Peter 
Schuyler to Quebec with copies of 
Treaty of Ryswick, 392 ; New York 
made land grant to, 397. 

Democracy triumphant, 33 1 . 

Denonville, Governor Jacques Rene de 
Bresay, burned Iroquois villages, 2 1 3. 

Details, Multiplication of, requiring at- 
tention, 56. 

Detroit, Tradition of the French at, 
150; founded by Lamothe-Cadillac, 
272. 

Devonshire, English sailors and adven- 
turers from, 149. 

Dewey victory in Manila Bay, 257. 

Dickens, Charles, praised the steamboat 
service on Lake Champlain, 37; prob- 
ably visited Isle La Motte, 315. 

Dickinson, Hon. Jacob M., Secretary 
of War, Assistance of, 61 ; gave in- 
structions that the Army participate, 
75 ; arrival of, at Fort Ticonderoga, 
75 ; at review at Plattsburgh, 78 ; 
guest at banquet to Pres. Taft, 233. 

Dieppe, Champlain sailed from, 365. 

Dieskau, Ludwig August, Baron von. 
Expedition of, to Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga, 5 ; wounded and re- 
pulsed at Lake George, 5, 154-55; 
strengthened Fort Frederic, 129; led 
his army from Crown Point, 395. 



Dillingham, Senator William P., at con- 
ference of Sub-Committee with Sec- 
retary Root, 25, 43. 

Dillon, McLellan & Beadel, Map of 
Bluff Point made by, 340; descrip- 
tion of accepted design for monument, 
346-47. 

Dixon, James, Poetical rhapsody on the 
Lake at Plattsburgh, 418-19. 

Dochet's doom, 215. 

Docks repaired, 62. 

Dolbeau, Jean, at Isle La Motte, 301 ; 
in the vision of the past, 306, 308. 

Dollier de Casson, Francois, missionary, 
at Fort Ste. Anne, 33. 215, 301. 
306, 308. 389. 

Dominy, Hon. Alonson T., member of 
New York Commission, 22, 40, 50; 
death of, 50. 

Don de D'leu, The, Champlain's flag- 
ship, 87; towed to Crown Point, 
117; represented on a float in parade 
at Plattsburgh, 231. 

Dongan, Thomas, Governor, proposed to 
build fort on Lake, 390. 

Dovraie, Capt. George, in command of 
British fleet on Lake Champlain, 8-9, 
34; at Isle La Motte, 316. 

Dozois,Very Rev. Father, Sermon by, in 
St. Peters Church, Plattsburg, 231. 

Drake, Sir Francis, came and left no 
trace. 209. 

Drake. M. V., at hearing, 34 L 

Draper, Hon. Andrew S., contributes in- 
structive article. 59; assistance ren- 
dered by, 6L 

Du Bois. secular priest at Isle La Motte, 
30 1 , 389 ; in the vision of the past, 
306. 308. 



484 



Analytical Index 



Du Luques, Sieur, a lieutenant, drowned 
in storm, 388. 

Du Luth, Daniel Greysolon, fired by ex- 
ample of Champlain, 265 ; first Euro- 
pean on shores of Lake Huron, 272. 

Dubuque, H. A., Address by, at St. 
Peter's College, Plattsburgh, 23 L 

Dubuque, City of, founded by Julien 
Dubuque, 272. 

Duquesne de Menneville, Inspiration in 
example of, 213. 

Dutch, Impress of, upon southeastern 
part of New York Province, 2. 

Dutch East India Co., 211. 

Dutch navigators, 355. 

Dwight, Dr. Timothy, made elaborate 
record of the Champlain Valley, 36; 
describes Crown Point, 406-7; 
Chimney Point, 407; property in 
Columbia College, 407. 

EAGLE, THE, in Macdonough's 
fleet at Cumberland Bay, 163. 
164, 228. 

Earthquake of 1663, 375. 

Eastern United States, A Mediterranean 
sea covering the, 376. 

Edison. Thomas Alva, and his oppor- 
tunity, 331. 

Edmunds, George F., 284. 

Education, The fruits of, 331. 

Education Department of New York 
State published a pamphlet on the cele- 
bration, 59. 

Egypt, Close cult of priests in, 331. 

Electric illuminations. Notable, at 
Plattsburgh, 232; at Burlington, 
253. 



Elizabeth, Queen. Death of, 212. 326. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Tributes to, 
from across the Atlantic, 295. 

Emigrants from Canada to New York, 
412. 

Empress lines of steamers, 270. 

England, a free national branch of the 
Catholic Church, 1 1 2. 

England and France rivals for possession 
of New World, 31, 110, 168; chief 
claimants for sovereignty, 111, 112; 
Catholic countries, 112. 

England and the United States, There 
can be no future enmity between, 1 99 ; 
the struggle between, 234. 

England, The, of James I, 121, 212; 
failed to hold the colonies, 1 24 ; what 
the Seven Years' War did for, 156; 
garden of the world, 1 65 ; our Mother 
Country, 203; honor to the common 
people of, 214; taught us the princi- 
ples of self-government, 239; sought 
a dominion, 265 ; followed in path 
of discovery and gold-hunting. 271. 

English, Two reasons why we speak; 
one the Iroquois, 214, 230. 

English and French, Union of, in Can- 
ada, 112, 165, 204; discuss the 
past in concord of the present, 1 99. 

English colonists home-makers, 151-52; 
war with the French chronic, 152; 
colonized for freedom, 212. 

English navigators, 355. 

English Revolution, the crowning glory 
of the Enghsh race, 330. 

Entente cordiale, 273-74. 

Episodes in the history of the Champlam 
valley (Frank H. SEVERANCE), 
385-400. 



Analytical Index 



485 



Erdinator, Rigeletto monk. Statue of, in 

Manila, 194. 
Erskine, John. — Champlain: a 
poem, 323-26; Champlain led by 
faith, 323; loved truth in nature, 
324; vision and freedom, 325. 
Esty, Col. J. Grey, commanding Ver- 
mont Division National Guard, 254. 
Ethan Allen Club, Burlington, The 
Commissioners guests of the, 25; 
luncheon to Pres. Taft and guests at 
the, 280. 
Europe, Population of, doubled, 329; 

a new spirit in, 330. 
Events on which historians disagree, 74. 
Evolution of the celebration project, 1 3- 

18. 
Exchange of prisoners held by Indians, 

392. 
Expedition of colonists and Indians in 

I 709 unsuccessful, 1 52. 
Explorers, Daring of the, 263; wonder- 
ful line of, 264; Champlain one of 
the ablest and best of, 264; from 
New France overran the Mississippi 
valley before the Seven Years* War, 
271. 

FAITH and tolerance, Hughes, Taft, 
and Gibbons on, 1 92-96. 

Falls of St. Anthony, The, discovered 
by Father Hennepin, 271. 

Falls of St. Louis, 356. 

Farms, The deserted, of Vermont, 283. 

Farrand, Daniel, made address of wel- 
come to James Monroe at Burlington, 
407. 

Favreau, J. Arthur, compiler and editor 
of *' Le Grande Semaine," 59. 



Fearn, Capt. William R., 7 1st Reg., 
N. G., A. D. C. to Gov. Hughes, 
76. 
Federal Government should invite repre- 
sentatives from France, Great Britain, 
and Canada as its guests, 25, 43; 
Resolution to memorialize the, to par- 
ticipate, 26; co-operation of, 366. 
Federal recognition and aid, 43-44; 
conference of sub-committees of the 
Commissions with Secretary of State 
Elihu Root, 25-26, 43; joint memo- 
rial sent to Secretary of State, 43; 
request contained in, 43-44; memo- 
rial referred to Senate Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, 44 ; Bill passed, ap- 
propriating $20,000, 44; Witherbee 
and Hill conferred with authorities re- 
garding, 59. 
Federal troops. Co-operation of, ar- 
ranged for, 58, 62. 
Ferris. M. Y.. at hearing, 341. 
Fidehty to country and fidelity to God, 

Cardinal Gibbons on, 108. 
Fifteenth U. S, Cavalry, squadron of, 
under Capt. W. T. Littebrant, Move- 
ments of, 75 ; escort to the President, 
75, 232; hst of office-3 of the, pres- 
ent at the celebration, 81 ; two troops 
of, at Isle La Motte, 301. 
Fifth Royal Canadian Highlanders, in- 
vited, 58; and band in parade and re- 
view at Plattsburgh, July 7th, 78, 
232; commanding officer and number 
of men, 84; thanks of the United 
States Government extended to, by 
Pres. Taft, 236. 279; Gov. Hughea 
on the. 242. 



486 



Analytical Index 



Fifth U. S. Infantry, Col. Calvin D. 
Cowles, in parades at Plattsburgh and 
Burlington, 75, 232; list of officers 
of the, present at the celebration, 79- 
80 ; band of, in both parades, 80. 
Finch, The, English vessel, drifted ashore 
in Cumberland Bay, 1 63, 1 64. 

Finger-lake valleys of central New York, 
381. 

Finn, P. J., at hearing, 341. 

Firearms, Champlain's use of, cause of 
deadly hostility of Iroquois to the 
French, 2, 89, 121, 168. 

Fireworks, Displays of, provided, 60; 
at Crown Point, 136; at Ticonder- 
oga, 187; at Plattsburgh, 232. 

First Regiment, N. G. N. Y., Col. 
Charles H. Hitchcock, in camp at 
Plattsburgh Barracks, 78. 

First Vermont Infantry, Company " M," 
at Isle La Motte, 301 ; with band, as 
Governor's escort, 302. 

Fish, Frank L., member of Vermont 
Commission, 52. 

Fisheries Question, The, in Lake Cham- 
plain, 291-92. 

Fisk, Hon. Nelson W., entertained Com- 
missions at dinner on Isle La Motte, 
25 ; assistance rendered by, 61 . 

Fitch, Hon. Charles EUiott, L. H. D., 
contributes instructive article, 59. 

Fitz.patrick, prelate, in vision of the past, 
306, 308. 

Five Nations, The Confederacy of the, 
88 ; higher civilization in, 89 ; suprem- 
acy of, 121 ; the lodges of, 1 48 ; ter- 
ritory and nations of the, 208; tribes 
of each nation the same, 208-9 ; gov- 
ernment of, and area covered by, 209 ; 
treaty between the French and, 396. 



Flags, American, Fifty great, at Bur- 
lington, 254. 

Flags, Combined use of American and 
French, in the decorations, 73-74; at 
the banquet, 233, 238; of three great 
nations unfurled, 269; at the banquet 
in Burlington, 280. 

Fletcher, Governor Benjamin, reports 
defeat of Indian raiders, 392. 

Foley, James A., member of New York 
Commission, 22, 40, 50, 52; on Lit- 
erary and Speakers' Committee, 5 1 ; 
chairman Fireworks Committee, 5 1 ; 
on Publicity Committee, 52 ; on Com- 
mittee on Banquet, 249; on Commit- 
tee on Funds for a Monument, 339; 
on Committee on a Separate Memo- 
rial, 344. 

Foot Guards, see Governor-General's 
Foot Guards. 

Foreign relations. Our, strengthened by 
New York and Vermont, 235, 284. 

Forest fires, 406, 412. 

Forest of Arden, A, to the west, 1 48. 

Forests should be preserved, 267-68. 

Forshew, Commander Robert P., Sec- 
ond Battalion, Naval Militia, 
A. D. C, escort to the French Am- 
bassador, 77. 

Fort Amherst at Crown Point, 1 1 7 ; ex- 
tent and cost of, 1 1 9. 

Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga abandoned 
by the French, 3; built in 1 775, 5, 
140, 143, 155, 270, 328, 363; 
Montcalm at, 5, 182; captured by 
Amherst, and name changed to Fort 
Ticonderoga, 140. 

Fort Cassin on Otter Creek, Celebration 
at, 334. 



Analytical Index 



487 



Fort Duquesne, 153, 156, 158; gate- 
way of the West, 2 1 3. 

Fort Edward, Burgoyne captured, 119; 
new name for Fort Lyman, 155. 

Fort Ethan Allen, Squadron of Fifteenth 
U. S. Cavalry from, 75. 

Fort Frederic at Crown Point blown 
up by de Bourlamaque, 3, 119; 
built in 1731 by Marquis de 
Beauharnois, 5, 118, 123, 129, 
152, 328, 363. 393; capture 
of, attempted, 5 ; the southernmost 
outpost of the French, 32, 35 ; Am- 
herst and Burgoyne at, 35, 119; his- 
toric names and events at, 129, 363; 
vote at Ticonderoga as to name of, 
1 76, 2 70 ; accounts of, by Kalm and 
Crespel. 393-95. 

Fort Frontenac, 158. 

Fort La Motte several years deserted, 
315. 

Fort La Prairie captured by Gen. Philip 
Schuyler, 1 52. 

Fort Lyman, later named Fort Edward, 
built, 153. 

Fort Oswego stormed by Montcalm, 
181. 

Fort St. Frederic, see Fort Frederic. 

Fort Ste. Anne, Dedication of, at Isle 
La Motte, 4, 315. 327. 388; stop- 
ping-place for expeditions, 4^5, 315, 
363; first Christian worship in Ver- 
mont at, 32, 301 ; historic associa- 
tions of, 33, 270; now known as 
Sandy Point, 301 ; gives honor to 
the heroes of the past, 305, 308; 
burned by the French, 327; men 
from, surprised by the Mohawks, 
388; de Tracy's expedition at, 388. 



Fort Ticonderoga, Region of, interested 
the French and British ambassadors, 
140; captured by Ethan Allen, 140; 
and by Burgoyne, 140. 

Fort William Henry, Lake George, 
taken by Montcalm, 5, 155-56, 
395; saved by John Stark, 155; 
capitulation of, and massacre at, 395. 

Fortifications, Historical, 270; the story 
of, 328. 

Foster, David J., at conference of Sub- 
Committee with Secretary Root, 25, 
43; reported a bill from the Commit- 
tee of Foreign Affairs, 44; remarks 
of, at Ticonderoga, 177-79: Ver- 
mont set the pace for New York with 
Ethan Allen, 1 78 ; Roosevelt secured 
peace between Japan and Russia, 
1 78 ; Burlingame in House of Com- 
mons, 178; Congressman Malby, 
1 79 ; guest at banquet to Pres. Taft, 
233; secured passage of bill by Con- 
gress, 347. 

Fox, Charles James, censured Burgoyne 
for employing Indians, 8; friend of 
Americans, 1 62. 

France and England, Catholic countries, 
112; friendly relations of, 183. 

France, The Church of, resisted foreign 
authority, 113. 

France, The, of Henry of Navarre, 
121, 286, 355; a feudal France. 
1 22 ; worthy monuments of, 123; and 
the New World, 1 49 ; ruined in two 
continents, 156; protagonist of lib- 
erty, 1 65 ; the friend of the United 
States, 201 ; world owes many debts 
to, 213; our tribute to, 237; sought 



488 



Analytical Index 



a dominion, 265; pioneers of com- 
mercial industry from, 270-71. 

France, Republic of, Sub-Committee to 
call the attention of the, to the celebra- 
tion, 22 ; representatives from, should 
be invited, 25, 26, 366; diplomatic 
representatives of, invited, 58; signifi- 
cance of their presence, 63; no en- 
mity between United States and, in 
the future, 199; Jusserand extends 
thanks of, for honors to Champlain, 
201, 203; the friendship of, for Am- 
erica and for England, 238, 241 ; 
not a flighty nation, 238; the colonial 
empire of the, 290. 

Franklin, Benjamin, conveyed in open 
boat on return from Montreal to Ti- 
conderoga, 7; plan of, for union, 
158-59; the supreme good sense of, 
213,245. 

Franklin, The steamer, 413, 416. 

Fraser, General Simon, pursued the re- 
treating Gen. St. Clair, 1 62. 

Fraternal orders to be invited to parade, 
27. 

Fraternal societies co-operated, 60. 

Frawley, James J., member of New 
York Commission, 50, 52; chairman 
of Banquet Committee, 5 1 ; on Pub- 
licity Committee, 52; made ante- 
prandial arrangements for banquet, 
249; member of Committee to Raise 
Funds for a Monument, 339; on 
Committee on Location and Cost of 
a Monument, 339. 

Frederick the Great praised Montgom- 
ery's generalship, 160-61. 



Fremin, Father Jacques, labored at Fort 
Ste. Anne, 33, 389; in vision of the 
past, 306, 308. 

French, Victory of the, at Ticonderoga, 
under Montcalm, 3; defeated by 
Gen. Amherst, 3, 34-35; on the 
lower Mississippi, 111, 150; estab- 
lished posts on the great lakes and on 
the Alleghany river. 111, 150; 
claimed sovereignty. 111; in the 
South and West. 123, 150; not 
settlers but explorers, 151; war with 
English and Iroquois, 152; colonized 
for dominion, 212; leaders in coloni- 
zation, 212-13; pioneers of civiliza- 
tion in America, 271 ; early directed 
colonization toward Canada, 355. 

French Ambassador, see Jusserand, Jeai 
Adrien Antoine Jules. 

French- American residents of Northern 
New York gathered at Plattsburgh, 
231 ; and French speaking Canadians 
at Isle La Motte celebration, 302. 

French and Dutch, Emissaries of, passed 
through the Lake, 390. 

French and English discuss the past m 
concord of the present, 199; a good 
Canadian combination, 205 ; only na- 
tions colonizing in America, 21 1-13; 
in Canada, 285, 328. 

French and English wars, 31, 111, 121, 
1 34, 328 ; began early along the 
coast, 123; final struggle in the, 2 1 4, 
328. 

French and Indian expedition against 
Schenectady came and went via Lake, 
390. 



Analytical Index 



489 



French and Indian raiders near Albany 
pursued and defeated at the Lake, 
391-92. 

French and Indian War, The, 156, 
213-14; effects of. 158. 

French and Indians, Barrier to incursions 
of the, from Canada, 2 ; War of, 6, 
34; rights of New York maintained 
against, 33-34, 57. 

French and the Five Nations, Treaty be- 
tween, 396. 

"French Day" at Pittsburgh, 231; 
mass in St. Peter's Church, 231 ; 
parade under Marshal Dr. J. H. La 
Rocque, 231 ; address at St. Peter's 
College by H. A. Dubuque, 231. 

French domination for 150 years, 3, 1 3, 
32, 143. 

French Embassy, Benoist d'Azy, Naval 
Attache of, 302, 314. 

French failure and English success. Two 
causes of, 2 1 4. 

French forts in the Champlain valley, 1 ; 
from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, 
213, 363. 

French names of prosperous communi- 
ties, 123. 

French Naval Academy, The, not a 
school of English speakers, 320. 

French people, Admiration of England 
for the, 240. 

French Revolution, The, Change effected 
by, 122-23; social forces in, 212; 
a consequence of our own, 330. 

French River, Champlain went down, to 
Georgian Bay, 364. 

French settlements in the Champlain val- 
ley, 1 ; how permanent, were pre- 
vented, 2-3. 



French societies. Celebration by, at Bur- 
lington, 253-54; endorsed Isle La 
Motte for site of monument, 340. 

Frenchmen, adventurers and hunters, 
271. 

Frenchmen, The governing class of, 
211-12. 

Friendship between nations the thing of 
our time worthy of commemoration, 
204. 

Frobisher, Sir Martin, came and left no 
trace, 209. 

Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count, gal- 
lant, 133, 150; inspiration in ex- 
ample of, 213; burned Iroquois vil- 
lages, 213. 

Funds, Independent, raised by local com- 
mittees, 60. 

Fundy, Bay of. Tides in the, 2 1 6. 

Fur trade. Aid of the northern tribes in 
the, secured for the French by Cham- 
plain, 110; gone, 266. 

Fur traders. Endurance of the French, 

112,270. 

Furs and peltries in 1806 important 
items of freight, 407. 

/^ALILEO, and Champlain, 225; 

^»-* and his telescope, 326. 

Gallican liberties recognized, 1 1 3. 

Gate of the country. The, 265, 270. 

Gates, General Horatio, at Ticonderoga, 
7; took possession of Crown Point, 
8, 131. 

Gateway of the country, 141. 

Gateway of the Land, Fair, 1 34. 

** Gateway of the Nation," the Cham- 
plain valley. Three nations contended 
for possession of, 4, 141. 



490 



Analytical Index 



Gateway to a continent, 1 1 8, 234. 

Gaul, Saxon and, wrestle, 1 68. 

" Gentlemen Adventurers of England, 
The," founded by a Frenchman, 111. 

Geography the present expression of geo- 
logical forces and effects, 372. 

Geology of the Champlain Valley 
(John M. Clarke) 371-82: His- 
tory closely knit to geography, 371" 
72 ; geography the present expression 
of geology, 372; the valley and the 
St. Lawrence have a common birth, 
372; the first continent, the "Cana- 
dian shield," 373-74; formation of 
the Appalachians, 373; "Logan's 
Fault," 374; oldest waterways on 
earth, 374; birth of the Champlain 
valley, 374-75; earthquake of 1663 
and Mt. Trembleau, 375; second 
stage, the Levis Channel of the Lower 
Silurian, 376; the dark ages of the 
valley, 376-77; the ancient rock 
beds, 377-79; the Adirondack crys- 
tallines, 377; the Potsdam sand- 
stones, 377-78; the limestones and 
shales, 378-79; the Great Glacier, 
379-81; Lake Albany and Lake 
Vermont, 380-81 ; sinking of the 
earth's surface, 381 ; Gilbert Gulf 
and the Hochelagan Sea, 381 ; tilt of 
the Champlain-Hudson valley, 382; 
Champlain valley upraised, 382; 
canyon of the Ausable, 382. 

Georgian Bay, Champlain first white 
man to reach, 1 1 0, 364. 

Georgian Bay Canal, The, 206, 270. 

Germans from Gottingen studying Eng- 
lish at Burlington, 415. 



Germany and the Thirty Years War, 
211. 

Gibbons, James Cardinal. — Sermon 
preached by, at Cliff Haven, on 
Champlain Sunday, 1 02, 1 03-9 ; on 
idolatry at Rome and in the Roman 
Empire, 104; Christ's call to the 
apostles, 1 04-5 ; work of the apostles, 
105-6; the victories of peace, 106; 
triumph of the church, 1 06-7 ; Cham- 
plain and the great missionaries, 107; 
love of country and the glory of God, 
108-9; remarks at celebration, on 
tolerance in religion, 196; guest at 
banquet to President Taft, 233. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, in Newfound- 
land, under a Royal Patent, 1 1 0, 
209. 

Gilbert Gulf, a great salt bay extending 
to Lake Ontario, 38 1 . 

Gilman, Caroline H., in " Poetry of 
travel," praises the Franklin, 416, 

Glacier, The Great, from Ungava and 
Labrador, 379-81. 

Glens Falls, birthplace of Governor 
Charles E. Hughes, 259. 

Gloire, La, est le soleil des morts, 229. 

Godley, John R.obert, writes two chap- 
ters at Isle aux Noix, 417; praises 
the Burlington, 417; plan for injur- 
ing the United States, 4 1 7. 

Goesbriand, Rev. de, bought site of Fort 
Ste. Anne, 33; in vision of the past, 
306, 308. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, came and left no 
trace, 209. 

Gougou's hideous hiss. The, 2 1 6. 



Analytical Index 



491 



Gouin, Sir Lomer, Premier of Quebec, 
guest at banquet to President Taft, 
233; remarks, 247-49; the historic 
past, 247; tribute to Champlain, the 
founder, 248-49; best wishes for the 
United States, 249 ; represented Pro- 
vince of Quebec, 318. 
Goupil, Rene, missionary, killed by the 

Mohawks, 387. 
Government, Participation of executive 
heads of, a crowTiing success, 62; 
change in forms of, 330; just powers 
of, derived from governed, 330. 
Governor-General's Foot Guards, Lt.- 
Col, D. R. Street commanding, and 
band, in reviews at Pittsburgh and 
Burlington, 78, 232, 255. 280; num- 
ber of men, 84 ; Governor Hughes on 
the, 242 ; President Taft on the, 279. 
Grand Army of the Republic, A divi- 
sion of the, in parade at Plattsburgh, 
232 ; at Burlington. 280. 
Grande Isle in Champlain's path, 1 48. 
" Grande Semaine, Le," compiled and 

edited by J. Arthur Favreau, 59. 
Granges, Local, co-operated, 60. 
Granite, Quarries of, 377. 
Granites of the Adirondacks, 373. 
Grant, Maj.-Gen., and Mrs. Fred. D., 

invited guests, 57. 
Grants, Seigniorial, about Lake Cham- 
plain, made by the French. 1 -2 ; con- 
firmation of, sought by French from 
Quebec, 24, 397; few occupations 
under French, 363, 397. 
Graphite. Deposits of, 377-78. 
Great Britain, Sub-Committee to call the 
attention of, to the celebration, 22; 
representatives from, should be in- 



vited, 25, 26, 366; diplomatic repre- 
sentatives of, invited, 58; significance 
of their presence, 63; our Mother 
Country even in acrimony of the 
Revolution, 203. 
Great Jehovah, The, and the Continental 

Congress, 35. 144, 160, 174. 
Great Lakes drained by Mohawk 

channel into the Hudson, 380. 
Green Mountain Boys, Ethan Allen and 
the. capture Ticonderoga, 6, 1 34, 
140, 144. 159-60. 173-74; praise 
of. from New York. 144; Governor 
Prouty on the. 145; Governor 
Hughes will tread humbly among the, 
198; patriotism of, 260; a sturdy 
race, 265. 
Green Mountains, The, 259, 268, 291, 

336. 
Grenville series. Gray gneisses and 

schists of the, 377. 
Grogan, Col. J. H., marshal of division 
of G. A. R., in parade at Platts- 
burgh. 232. 
Guard of honor for Governor Hughes 
from Tenth Regiment, National 
Guard, 11 . 
Guard of honor for President Taft from 
Tenth Regiment, National Guard, 
N. Y., 11. 
Guard of honor of blue jackets at 
speakers' stands, 76; at review at 
Plattsburgh Barracks, 78. 
Guerin. Vital, chose site of St. Paul, 

272. 
Guests, specially invited, Provision for, 

56; several named, 57. 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, Champlain en- 
tered, 356. 



492 



Analytical Index 



Gunning, John, at hearing, 34 1 . 

Gurney, Joseph John, the Quaker, on the 
people, 416; compared the Lake to 
Derwentwater, 416; visited the col- 
lege, 417. 

HALF MOON. The. in Penobscot 
Bay. 210; the voyage of the, 
234. 

Hall, Bp. Athur C. A., preached ser- 
mon at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 
Burlington, on Champlain Sunday, 
101; pronounced invocation at Bur- 
lington, 255. 

Hall, Capt. Basil, writes of the Cham- 
plain steamers, 412; and a forest 
fire. 412-13. 

Hall. Hon. Benjamin E., Assistance 
rendered by, 61. 

Hall, Edward Hagaman, Assistant Sec- 
retary, Official report of the Hudson- 
Fulton Commission by, 336. 

Hall, Enoch, settled on Isle La Motte, 
316. 

Hall, Lt. Francis, pubHshed a valuable 
narrative of things in the Champlain 
valley. 36. 

Hamilton. Alexander. 245. 

Hamilton. Capt. Thomas, on the defeat 
of Prevost, 415. 

Hamlin, A. D. F.. in charge of competi- 
tion for design for memorial, 345. 

Harmensen. Fredrych. escaped from 
Quebec. 390. 

Harmensen, Nanning, escaped from 
Quebec. 390. 

Harper, J. M., " Champlain; a drama 
in three acts," 59. 

Hanna. Robert, at hearing, 34 1 . 



Havana, Champlain visited, 356. 

Havre de Grace, Champlain returned to, 
357. 

Hawaii, 329. 

Hays, Lynn M.. member and secretary 
of Vermont Commission, 1 6, 28, 52 ; 
at conference with Secretary Root, 
25, 43; on Sub-Committee of Ver- 
mont Commission, 29; member Com- 
mittee on Badges, 52; secretary at 
joint meeting with New York Com- 
mittee, 345-46. 

Heard, A. A., on Committee on Trans- 
portation, 5 1 ; assistance rendered by, 
61. 

Heights of Abraham, Death of Mont- 
calm on the, 157,213,230,269. 

Heistand, Col. H. O. S., Adjt.-Gen.. 
Valuable assistance from, 61 ; ar- 
ranged the movements of the United 
States troops, 75. 

Hennepin, Father Louis. 150; dis- 
covered the Falls of St. Anthony, 
271. 

Henry IV. (of Navarre) Champlain 
represented, 1, 132, 141; the golden 
fleur-de-lis of, 74; the France of. 
121; greatest of French kings, 211; 
the explorers of, 215-17; death of, 
326; colonization of Canada under, 
355; interested in Champlain's re- 
port. 357, 362. 

Henry V. to troops at Agincourt. 181. 

Henry, Brig.-Gen. Nelson H., on Com- 
mittee on State Troops, 5 1 ; valuable 
assistance from, 61 ; Adjutant-Gen- 
eral N. G., 76; thanks of the Com- 
mission due, 76; escort to President 
Taft from Albany. 11. 



Analytical Index 



493 



Hero Islands. The. 1 33. 

" Hiawatha," The historic drama of, 
subject of a pageant, 86; description 
of, 87-88; trade meeting of Hoche- 
lagas and Algonquins, 87, 428; stag 
race between Black Wolverine and 
Hiawatha, 87, 428; canoe race, 87, 
428; harvest festival, 87-88, 429- 
30; siege of the stockade. 88, 440- 
43; Iroquois driven to Lake Cham- 
plain. 88 ; Hiawatha establishes Con- 
federacy of the Five Nations, 88, 
451-62; "Spectator," of the Out- 
look, on the play and the Indians, 
88-90. 

" Hiawatha, the Mohawk," Libretto 
of, 427-63: Trade meeting, pipe 
of peace, 428; stag race, 428; 
canoe race, 428 ; Hiawatha wins stag 
race. 429; corn feast, 429-30; talk 
of Hiawatha's future, 431-33; the 
moose-spies, 433; axe of the Hurons, 
434; Black Wolverine and his men 
spies, 435; Hiawatha goes with 
them.. 436; treacherous attack on 
Hiawatha, 438; war. 439-40; the 
siege, 440-45; Wolverine killed, 
441 ; Hiawatha appears, 443; Awith- 
aroa's sacrifice, 444-45 ; farewell 
to Hochelaga, 445 ; on Lake Cham- 
plain, 445-46; in land of the Onon- 
dagas, 446-48; war against the 
Mohawks, 448-51; ended by Hia- 
watha, 45 1 ; appeal for league of the 
five nations, 45 1 -52 ; Hiawatha joins 
Mohawks, 453; wins them, 454-55; 
council of Onondagas, 455-56; 
Mohawk peace party, 457; Hatiria, 
the imposter, 459 ; the Cayuga, 460; 



Hiawatha secures peace, 461 ; peace 
with the Dutch, 462-63. 

Hickey, Rt. Rev. Bp. Thomas F., cele- 
brant at Cliff Haven, on Champlain 
Sunday, 102. 

Higgins, , on Committee on Enter- 
tainment, 52. 

Highway. The, between Quebec and Al- 
bany, 270. 

Hill, Caleb, killed at Isle La Motte. 
316. 

Hill, Master Harry, unveiled Boulder 
Monument, 333. 

Hill, Hon. Henry WAYLArro. com- 
piler of this Report. — Historical 
introduction. 1-9; suggestion of 
Governor Proctor to, 16; Con- 
current resolution offered by, passed 
by New York Legislature, 1 7, 
2 1 ; remarks of, supporting, 1 7 ; 
member of New York Commis- 
sion, 22, 40, 50. 52; chairman 
of Sub-Committee, 22-23; at con- 
ference of Sub-Committee with Secre- 
tary Root, 25, 43; secretary of the 
Commission, 5 1 ; on committees, 5 1 , 
52; chairman of Committee on Liter- 
ary Exercises, 56; and Mr. Wither- 
bee confer vnth Federal authorities 
at Washington, 59; all matters re- 
lating to publicity delegated to. 59; 
presided at Literary Exercises at 
Ticonderoga, 140-83: Introduction, 
1 40-4 1 ; Indian names. 141; strong- 
hold of three nations. 141; naval 
victories on, and beauty of the Lake, 
141; presents Governor Hughes, 
141 ; presents Governor Prouty, 
1 45 ; introduces Hamilton W. Mabie, 



494 



Analytical Index 



orator of the day, 146-47; presents 
Percy MacKaye, poet of the day, 
165; introduces Hon. Seth Low, 
1 75 ; introduces David J. Foster, 
177; presents Frank Plumley, 179; 
introduces Ambassador Jusserand, 
180, and Ambassador Bryce, 183; 
at Isle La Motte, 301, 303.— Isle La 
Motte, address of welcome, 314-18: 
the assemblage, 314; Champlain here 
300 years ago, 315; place of Indian 
conflicts, 315; Fort Ste. Anne built, 
315; distinguished visitors, 315; 
granted to French cfiicers, 316; his- 
toric points near, 316; settled, 316; 
Capt. Downie's fleet at, 316; grand- 
father killed at, 316; sent to the 
Civil War more soldiers than it had 
voters, 317; voted one dollar per 
head for celebration, 317; Tercen- 
tenary celebration suggested by Gov- 
ernor F. D. Proctor, 317; Gover- 
nors Prouty and Hughes, 317; the 
pageants and parades, addresses and 
poems, 317-18; official representa- 
tives, 318; benefits, 318; thanks to 
native town, and all others, 318. On 
sites for a monument, 339-40 ; motion 
of, making vote for Bluff Point 
unanimous, 342. 
Hill, Henry Wayland. — Samuel 
Champlain and the Lake Champlain 
Tercentenary, 355-67: Early trans- 
Atlantic voyages, 355; Champlain 
born In Brouage, 355 ; a practical 
navigator, 356; visit of Champlain 
to Mexico, Panama and Havana, 
356; voyage up the St, Lawrence in 
1603, 356; repeated voyages of. 



357; founded colony at Quebec, 
357; Governor of Quebec in 1608, 
358; sufferings during winter, 358; 
learns of the Lake, 358-59; tour of 
exploration with party of Montagnais, 
359; Champlain's own description of 
discovery of Lake Champlain, 359- 
60; battle with the Iroquois, 361" 
62; first white man in New York 
and Vermont, 362; the Lake long 
previous a battle ground for the In- 
dians, 363; Indian, French and Eng- 
lish occupation of the valley, 363; 
disputed grants of lands, 363; battles 
of the Revolution, 364; a highway 
of war and travel, 364 ; extract from 
Dr. Cutting's poem, 364; entered the 
Georgian Bay and beheld Lake 
Huron, 364; crossed Lake Ontario, 
364; yearly trips to France, 365; 
captured by English, 365 ; released 
and New France restored to the 
French, 365 ; died at Quebec, 365 ; 
his voyages and endurance, 365 ; 
foremost of pioneers, 366; the Ter- 
centenary authorized by two States, 
366 ; co-operation of Federal govern- 
ment, 366; to be made international, 
366; age of historical research, 
366-67. 

Historic sites. Tour of inspection of, 23- 
25 ; Valcour Island, Schuyler's 
Island, Crab Island, 23; Cumber- 
land Head, Point au Fer, Windmill 
Point, 24; Sandy Point on Isle La 
Motte, Crown Point and Ticon- 
deroga, 25. 

Historical Introduction (HenrY WaY- 
LAND Hill), 1-9. 



Analytical Index 



495 



Historical research. An age of, 366. 

" History of Lake Champlain," by 
Walter H. Crockett, 59. 

History the best study for the statesman, 
288; closely knit to geography, 371 ; 
a barren mass of lies, 372. 

Hitchcock, Col. Charles H., First Reg., 
N. G. N. Y.. in camp at Platts- 
burgh Barracks, 78. 

Hochelaga, now Montreal Island, 90, 
217; Cartier at, 110, 121; deserted 
in Champlain's time, 121; Iroquois 
driven from, 427. 

Hochelaga Sea, The, arm of the great 
Gilbert Gulf, 381. 

Hochelagas, Trade meeting of, with 
Algonquins and Hurons, in pageant, 
87. 5ee, also, the Libretto of Hia- 
watha, the Mohawk, 427-63. 

Ho-de-no-sau-nee, the Long House of 
the Iroquois, 208. 

Hodgson, Adam, Observations of, of 
little value, 408-9. 

Hoffman, Samuel Verplanck, a special 
guest, 57. 

Holland in the Orient, 211; sought a 
dominion, 265. 

Holley's "American Tourist," 418. 

Honfleur, The hopes of, 215; Cham- 
plain sailed from, 356, 357. 

Horicon, The, 227. 

Hospitality, Ferocious, 282. 

Hotel Champlain, Bluff Point, Joint 
meeting of Commissions at, 22 ; head- 
quarters of the New York Commis- 
sion at, 58, 61 ; arrival of President 
Taft at, 75; Governor Hughes, 76; 
of General Roe, 76; banquet to Presi- 



dent Taft at, 62, 233-49; burned, 
243. 

Howard, Gen. Oliver Otis, delivered 
address on " 1812," 335. 

Howard, Walter E,, member of Ver- 
mont Commission, 16, 28; on Sub- 
Committee, 29. 

Howe, Lord George Augustus, Ques- 
tion of burial place of, 74; heroic 
deeds of, 118, 157; high character 
of, 144, 157; death of, 157, 158, 
1 70, 1 82 ; soldierly qualities of, 288. 

Howe, Sir William, planned to meet 
Burgoyne at Albany, 161. 

Hubbardtown, Engagement of Generals 
Eraser and St. Clair near, 1 62. 

Hudson, Henry, and Champlain dis- 
covered river and lake in same year, 
120, 326; had not yet cruised up the 
river, 126; Champlain two months 
earlier than, 1 49, 363 ; Canada will 
help celebrate the Tercentenary of, 
205 ; and Champlain brought mis- 
sion of peace, 206; belongs to 
humanity, 206; and the Half Moon 
in Penobscot Bay, 210; and Cham- 
plain might have met, 264 ; both pos- 
sessed of the same dream, 296. 

Hudson, The basin of the, 265; the 
beautiful, 296. 

Hudson Bay Company, The, chartered, 
111; claims of, disputed by French 
fur traders. 111; took in the North 
West Co., 111. 

Hudson-Fulton Commission, The, 336; 
executive officers of the, 336; Report 
of, by Edward Hagaman Hall, 336. 

Hudson valley outlet dammed formed 
Lake Albany, 380. 



496 



Analytical Index 



Hudson's Bay, 206; the majestic, 296. 

Hughes, Gov. Charles Evans, in- 
terested in a celebration, 16-17; ap- 
pointed two members of New York 
Commission, 22; presided at joint 
meeting of Commissions at Hotel 
Champlain. Sept. 6. 1907. 22; ap- 
proval of celebration in message of, 
28; chairman of First Commission, 
40; assistance and hearty endorse- 
ment from, 61 ; arrival of, with Mrs. 
Hughes, at Bluff Point, July 4th, and 
reception of, 76; reviewed the Tenth 
Regiment, N. G. N. Y., at Crown 
Point, 77, 136; and at Fort Ticon- 
deroga, 11 \ with staff at Pitts- 
burgh Barracks, 78; address at 
Crown Point Forts, 118-19: A gate- 
way to a continent, scene of rivalries 
of Old World powers, 118; three 
nations join in recognition of heroic 
sons, 118; Fort Frederic established, 
118; in hands of French and English 
by turn, 119; finally American, 1 19. 
Address at Ticonderoga, 142-45: 
The place of romance and the scene 
of conflict, 1 42-43 ; four men, 1 43" 
44; Champlain, 143; Montcalm, 
1 44 ; Lord Howe, 1 44 ; Ethan Allen, 
144; the spirit of the Revolution, 
1 45 ; reconsecration, 1 45 ; intro- 
duces Vice-Admiral Uriu, 1 75 ; pro- 
posed cheers for President Taft, 180; 
introduces President Taft, 185. Ad- 
dress at Cliff Haven, 192-93: Not 
easy to repeat first official visit, 192; 
Champlain a man of faith, 192; 
United States a land of faith and 
tolerance, 193; introduces President 



Taft, its worthy head, 193; Presi- 
dent returns compliments to, 1 93. 
Address at Plattsburgh Barracks, 
198-200: Amity and concord of the 
nations, 1 98 ; thanks to the Commis- 
sion, 198; at peace, even with Ver- 
mont, 198-99; the first chieftain and 
the last victor, Champlain and Mac- 
donough, 199-200; thanks to, from 
Governor Prouty, 201. Toastmaster 
at banquet to President Taft, 234; 
remarks, 234-35; the Indian of the 
Long House, the English, the Dutch, 
Alaska, 234; a great united people, 
our local patriotism, the President, 
235 ; on the absence of James S. 
Sherman, 237; remarks introducing 
Ambassador Jusserand, 237-38; re- 
marks introducing James Bryce, 239: 
England our teacher, Bryce our in- 
terpreter, 239; the tribute of James 
Bryce to, 241 ; introducing Rodolphe 
Lemieux, representing our brethren of 
Canada, 242; introducing Lomer 
Gouin, 247; Governor Prouty on, at 
Burlington, 258; remarks of, at 
Burlington, 259-61 : A New Yorker's 
appreciation of Vermont, 259; Ethan 
Allen a home ruler, 259-60; inde- 
pendence of Ethan Allen, 260; our 
national unity, 260; rivalry of State 
efficiency, 260-61 ; the conference of 
Governors, 261 ; remarks at Burling- 
ton banquet, 286-88: If Champlain 
had foreseen this celebration, 286 ; our 
intimate association v^ath three great 
men, Taft, Jusserand, Bryce, 286- 
87; no disparagement of Canada, 
287; value of the reunion and cele- 



Analytical Index 



497 



bration, 287; the study of American 
history, 287-88; a guarantee of peace, 
288; what shall we do with it, 288; 
with the Commission and guests at 
Isle La Motte. 302; praise for, 317; 
remarks at Isle La Motte, 321-22; 
the spot where we may really cele- 
brate, 321-22; the place of worship, 
322; consulted regarding site for 
monument, 341. 

Huguenots under Admiral Coligny, 
Failure of, to make settlements along 
the coast, 1 1 0. 

Hunter, Col., recommended building a 
fort on Lake Champlain, 393. 

Huron, Lake, discovered by Cham- 
plain, 327. 

Hurons, Battles of the Algonquins and, 
with the Iroquois, on Lake Champlain, 
2, 4, 31 5 ; Champlain and the, 202 ; 
boundary between, and Mohawks, 
222; in vision of the past, 306, 308; 
Champlain wintered with, in Georgian 
Bay territory, 365 ; expedition of, 
against Iroquois, 365. 

Husbandman, The, outlasts the hunter, 
122. 

Hyde, Ebenezer, settled on Isle La 
Motte. 316. 



IBERVILLE, PIERRELE 

i MOYNE, SIEUR D*. founder of 
New Orleans, from Quebec, 271. 

Ice or snow not to be named with 
Canada, 287, 321. 

Illinois River, French military post on 

the. in. 

33 



Illustrations, List of, vii-viii. 

Independence Day celebration at Bur- 
lington, 253. 

India may be fed by Kansas, 330. 

Indian, The, in undisturbed possession. 
126; survivor, 165; gone, 266. 

Indian allies of French and English. 
214. 

Indian pageants. The public interested 
in the, 74; at Crown Point, 63, 77; 
given by a band of Indians under 
L. O. Armstrong, 86; three subjects 
of the, 86; floating island represent- 
ing the sacred island of Tiotiake, 86 ; 
construction of the float, 86-87; 
drama of " Hiawatha " enacted, 87- 
88; Iroquois driven from Montreal 
Island to Lake Champlain, 88, 89; 
Hiawatha establishes Confederacy of 
the Five Nations. 88, 89; story told 
in " The Master of Life." by D. D. 
Lighthall, 88; the "Spectator" in 
the Outlook on the, 88-90 ; actors in 
the, 86, 89-90; at Crown Point. 
117. 136; at Ticonderoga, 187; at 
Plattsburgh, 187; at Burlington 
viewed by President Taft, 280; suc- 
cess of, 31 7; at Rouse's Point, 334; 
whence players in, were drawn, 427. 

Indians, Canadians, and soldiers. Band 
of, attacked the Mohawk towns. 39 1 . 

Indians, Number of, the same to-day as 
when white men came. 121; not 
permanent settlers, 121; policy of 
Government towards the, 1 22 ; war- 
ring tribes of. 270; at Isle La Motte. 
302; salute the cross. 305. 307; 
delegations from original tribes of. 

314. 



498 



Analytical Index 



Indians feasted by Burgoyne, 8, 222, 
229. 

Indians of the pageants defeated Na- 
tional Guard in sham battle at Ticon- 
deroga, 90; in the parade at Bur- 
lington, 280. 

Indians of the St. Lawrence, Champlain 
friendly with the, 110,213. 

Individual right. The assertion of, 265. 

Inspiration, A week of, 288. 

Intelligence diffused, 331. 

Interest, Popular, in the celebration, 29. 

Interests, Local, of two States, to be con- 
sidered, 55; successfully adjusted, 
55-56. 

International Conference at Windmill 
Point in 1 766, 1 . 24. 

International relations, 235, 284, 318. 

Introduction, Historical (HenrY Way- 
LAND Hill), 1-9. 

Invitation, official. Copy of the, 68. 

Invitations, Official and Special, Com- 
mittee on, 57-58. 

Invocation, The, Champlain Sunday, 94. 

Iroquois, The, and the struggle for 
America (Elihu Root), 207-14. 
For analysis see author entry. 

Iroquois, Cause of hostility of the, to the 
French, 2, 89, 121, 127-28. 151. 
208,362; battles of, with Algon- 
quins and Hurons on Lake Cham- 
plain, 2, 4, 118, 149-51, 167-68, 
217, 223-25, 315; Isle La Motte 
once a camping ground of the, 4, 315; 
speech of chief of, to Burgoyne, 8; 
place of Champlain's battle with the, 
74, 362; descendants of the, acting 
in the Indian pageants, 89; power- 
ful allies of the Enghsh. 128, 208; 



the implacable, 1 48. 151; war of, 
with the French, 152; Ho-de-no- 
sau-nee, the Long House of the Iro- 
quois, 208, 213-14; in the agricul- 
tural stage, with a constitution, 208; 
faithful allies of the English, 213-14; 
the tameless, 217; valleys of the 
faithless, 222; the Indian of Indians 
turns, 225 ; M. Jusserand on Sena- 
tor Root and the, 290; in vision of 
the past, 306. 308; Lake the home 
of the, 358-59; expedition of 
Hurons and Champlain against, 365 ; 
expedition of de Tracy against, 388; 
driven from Hochelaga, 427. 

Iroquois allegiance. Perpetual question 
of, 392. 

Iroquois Confederacy, Mohawks leaders 
of the, 385 ; what if Champlain had 
won the friendship of the. 396. 

Iroquois River, The, later called Riche- 
lieu. 356. 

Isle aux Noix, French under de Bour- 
lamaque retreated to, 3; fortified by 
Montgomery and Schuyler, 6; sick 
American soldiers at, 6; Isaac Weld 
driven ashore on, 406; Mr. Matthews 
found unfinished vessels at, 409; 
Bernhardt. Duke of Sachsen- Weimar- 
Eisenach, on, 423. 

Isle La Motte, Historic record of, 4, 
327; General Schuyler joined Gen- 
eral Montgomery at, 6; sick Ameri- 
can soldiers at, 6; site of first French 
settlement in the valley, 25 ; celebra- 
tion exercises to be held at, 27, 366; 
religious services, 27; first Christian 
worship in Vermont held on, 32, 301, 
327; Archbishop of Quebec invited 



Analytical Index 



499 



to religious celebration at, 58; raised 
$500 for the occasion, 60. Bi-State 
programme of celebration exercises at, 
67; the climax of the celebration 
reached at, on a perfect day, 73, 301 ; 
United States Cavalry camped at, 75 ; 
Indian pageants given at, 86; first oc- 
cupancy of lake shores at, 126, 301 ; 
Champlain at, 1 48, 220 ; granted to 
French officials and soldiers, 152, 
316; the quarried blocks of, 22 1 ; 
first land visited by Champlain, 301, 
311; population of, 301 ; first visit 
to, of regular United States troops, 
302: arrival of Governor Prouty, 
302; of Governor Hughes and 
guests, 302; Champlain Sunday at, 
109, 302-4; Pontifical mass. Mon- 
signor Roy officiating, 302-3; ad- 
dress of welcome by Rev. Thomas A. 
Prevel, 303; sermon by Rev. Abbe 
Lecocq, 303; address by H. W. 
Hill, 303; services at Ste. Anne's, 
July 9th, 304-12: Address, French 
and English, of Rt. Rev. T. A. 
Prevel, 304-8; sermon, by Rev. 
P. J. Barrett, 309-12; high mass 
celebrated, 312. Literary exercises. 
Governor Prouty presiding, 312-32: 
Invocation by Rev. John M. Thomas, 
312-13; address of welcome by 
H. W. Hill, 314-18: Canadians 
and French settlers on, attacked by 
Indians, 316; occupied by British in 
War of 1812, 316; battery erected 
on, 316; Downie's and Mac- 
donough's fleets at, 316; fit place for 
close of celebration, 318; thanks to 
citizens of, 318; remarks of Benoist 



d'Azy, 320-2 1 ; remarks by Gover- 
nor Hughes, 321-22; Champlain, a 
poem, by John Erskine, 323-26; 
address by Wendell P. STAFFORD, 
326-32; dedication of Boulder 
Monument, 333-34; exercises at, 
concluded the week's celebration, 
335; logical site for memorial to 
Champlain, 340, 342; favored by 
Vermont Commission, 340; first 
island discovered by Champlain, 362 ; 
Capt. John Schuyler at, 391 ; Maj. 
Peter Schuyler found, deserted, 391. 

Isle of Orleans. The, 269. 

Italy but a name, 211. 

JAMESTOWN, English settlement at, 
110; Christopher Newport's colon- 
ists at, 210; nearest English settle- 
ment to Lake Champlain, 264 ; settled 
two years before Champlain, 315, 
326. 

Jamestown Celebration, The, 234. 

Japan, the " Yankee " nation of the 
East, 178. 

Jarvis, George T., member of Vermont 
Commission, 52; at joint meeting 
with New York Committee, 345. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 245. 

Jenne, Mrs. C. S. F., presented tablet in 
memory of soldiers of War of 1812, 
335. 

Jesuit mission in 1 642 at Isle La Motte, 
4. 

Jesuits, Heroism of the, 107, 1 12, 123, 
150; earthquake of 1663 reported 
by the, 375 ; drew no line, in their 
mission work, 387, 



500 



Analytical Index 



Johnson, General William, defeated 
Baron Dieskau at Lake George, 5 ; 
fruitless expedition of, against Fort 
Frederic, 129; a frontier baron, 
gathers an army, 153; defeated 
Dieskau after losing many in ambush, 
154-55; named Lake George, 154; 
built Fort WilHam Henry, 155; re- 
warded by Parliament and made a 
baronet, 155, 395. 

Jogues, Isaac, Jesuit martyr, 123, 215, 
306. 308; at Isle La Motte, 315; 
in 1 642 a captive of the Iroquois, 
escaped, 387; a messenger of peace, 
337; killed on third visit to Mohawks, 
387-88. 

Joint meeting of the New York and 
Vermont Commissions, at Hotel 
Champlain, Sept. 6, 1907, 22; Sub- 
Committee of three created, 22-23; 
at Albany, Dec. 21, 1907; resolu- 
tions adopted, 26; at Montpelier, 
Albany, Burlington and Plattsburgh, 
55. 

Joint memorial from both Commissions 
sent to the Secretary of State, 43; 
request in, 43-44; referred to Sen- 
ate Committee on Foreign Affairs, 44. 

Joliet, Louis, 150; inspiration in ex- 
ample of, 213; discovered the Mis- 
sissippi, 271. 

Jonson, Ben, on America, 289. 

Juneau, Salomon, father of Milwaukee, 
272. 

Juniper Island as a site for the memorial, 
342. 

JussERAND. Jean Adrien Antoine 
Jules, French Ambassador, guest at 



review at Plattsburgh Barracks, 78; 
at Ticonderoga, 1 39 ; remarks of, at 
Ticonderoga, 1 80-83 : Champlain, 
180; Montcalm, soldier and man, 
181-83; Bougainville and Levis, 
182; France and England, 183; re- 
marks of, at Plattsburgh Barracks, 
201-3; thanks for honors to Cham- 
plain, 201-2; the spirit of Cham- 
plain dwells in President Taft, 202; 
Champlain hated a useless war, 202; 
continued remarks in French, 203; 
guest at banquet to President Taft, 
233; introduction of, by Governor 
Hughes, 237-38; remarks. 238-39; 
friendship of France for America, and 
England, 238; France not a flighty 
nation, 238; Champlain straight- 
forward and a colonizer, 238; 
founded and died at Quebec, 238; 
" He goes far that never turneth," 
239; Vermont's official welcome to, 
255; remarks of, at Burlington, 262- 
63; Champlain's description of the 
Lake, 262; the name Vermont, 262; 
France a sower, has reaped American 
friendship, 262-63; Gov. Hughes' 
estimate of, 286; Gov. Prouty, in- 
troducing, 289; remarks at banquet, 
289-90; thanks for the celebration. 
289; Champlain, 289; Ben Jonson 
on Canada, 289; Senator Root's 
good English, 290; the Iroquois, 
290; the French not numerous 
enough, 290; France has produced 
new Champlains, 290; returned 
to Washington, 297; represented 
France, 318. 



Analytical Index 



501 



KALM. PETER, described the 
Champlain Valley, 36; visited 
Isle La Motte in 1749. 315; on 
Fort St. Frederic, 393-94; visit of, 
exceptional, 403. 

Karol, Spanish sculptor. Statue of 
Legaspi by, 1 94. 

Kepler and Galileo, 326. 

Kingsley, Darwin Pearl, President of 
Lake Champlain Association, 423. 

Kirby-Parrish, Mrs. L., painted five oil 
portraits of Champlain, 60. 

Knapp, H. Wallace, interested in a 
celebration, 16; member of New 
York Commission, 50, 52; on com- 
mittees, 5 1 ; permanent chairman, 5 1 ; 
chairman of Exercises at Plattsburgh 
Barracks, 197; remarks introducing 
Governor Hughes, 197; presenting 
Governor Prouty, 200; presenting 
Ambassador Jusserand, 201 ; intro- 
ducing Ambassador Bryce, 203 ; pre- 
senting Rodolphe Lemieux, 205 ; in- 
troducing Elihu Root, 207; intro- 
ducing Daniel L. Cady, 214; intro- 
ducing Pres. Taft, 230; at banquet 
to President Taft, 233; presented 
Governor Hughes as toastmaster, 234; 
and Witherbee consulted Governor 
Hughes on site for monument, 341. 

Knights of Columbus at high mass, Ste. 
Anne's Chapel, 312. 

Kohl, J. G., devotes a chapter to Bur- 
lington, and to " See Champlain," 
423. 

LA BARRE, GOVERNOR LE 
FEBVRE DE, burned Iroquois 
villages, 2 1 3. 



La Fayette, Marquis de. 181, 227; 
shared in laying a cornerstone of a 
building at the college in Burlington, 
410-11; and escort left Burlington 
on the Phoenix and the Congress, 
411. 

La Fresniere, Sieur de, sent to occupy 
Crown Point, 123. 

La Heve, High, 215. 

La Motte Lussiere, Pierre de St. Paul, 
Sieur de, built Fort Ste. Anne in 
1665-6 on Isle La Motte, 4, 301, 
315, 388. 

La Nove, leader of band against Mo- 
hawk towns, 391. 

La Prairie, Capt. John Schuyler cap- 
tured French at, 391; Maj. Peter 
Schuyler attacked, 391. 

La Rocque, Dr. J. H., Chief marshal of 
parade at Plattsburgh, 231. 

La Salle, Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur 
de, Champlain divides pre-eminence 
with, 149, 150; inspiration in ex- 
ample of, 2 1 3 ; a great explorer, 264 ; 
Champlain more considerate than, 
264; descended the Mississippi, 265; 
named the Louisiana territory, 271. 

Labor organizations co-operated, 60. 

Lac Hiroquoise, or Mer des Iroquois, 
names of Lake Champlain, 390. 

Lady of the Snows, 32 1 . 

Lafayette, Marquis de, see La Fayette 
above. 

Lafontaine, Louis C, member of New 
York Commission, 50, 52; on com- 
mittees, 51-52; on Committee on 
Literary Exercises, 56; appointed to 
invite the Archbishop of Quebec, 58; 
portrait of Champlain presented to, by 



502 



Analytical Index 



the Commission, 60; on Funds for a 
Monument Committee, 339; on Com- 
mittee on Location and Cost of Monu- 
ment, 339 ; on Committee on Erection 
of Memorial at Crown Point, 343; 
urged a lighthouse as form for memo- 
rial, 345 ; at joint meeting with Ver- 
mont Committee, 345-46. 

Lake Albany, a great glacial lake, 380. 

Lake Champlain, Discoverer of, 1, 31, 
142, 220. 361-62; grants of land 
about, 1-2; battles on, between 
Algonquins and Hurons and the Iro- 
quois, 2, 4, 363; two naval engage- 
ments on, 3-4; a paradise for the 
aborigines, 4; Parkman on, 5; 
settlements begun on, 5 ; Peter S. 
Palmer, historian, on activities on, 
5-6; the naval engagements on, 
under Benedict Arnold, 7; British 
expeditions on, 8; Macdonough's 
naval victory on, 8-9; under sov- 
ereign control of United States, 8, 9; 
comparable with foreign lakes, 9; 
tour of inspection of historic sites on, 
by the two Commissions, 23-25; res- 
olution that Tercentenary of the dis- 
covery of, be celebrated, 26; dis- 
covery of, antedates that of Hudson 
River, 3 1 ; highway and battle ground 
for rights of New York. 34. 396; 
engagements and expeditions on, dur- 
ing Revolution and War of 1812, 
34-35 ; 1 00th anniversary of steam 
navigation on, 36; a part of the 
system of improved waterways, 36; 
in literature. 36-37; date of Cham- 
plain's entrance into not agreed upon, 
74 ; no permanent settlement on, 118; 



the mastery of, a decisive factor in 
holding the territory, 1 24-25 ; the 
" door of the country," 129; famous 
in two wars, 141; its beauty, 141; 
the memories of, 146; the discovery, 
147-48; importance of, as a high- 
way, 152; struggle transferred to, 
156; named, 167, 175; the battle- 
ground of two hundred years, 1 86- 
87,396; Champlain on, 220-22 ; a 
highway and a battle field, 227, 396; 
Caniaderi guarunte, " the gate of the 
country," 264-65 ; never a great 
highway of commerce, 266; a dwell- 
ing of peace and quiet, 266; charms 
of the country around, 267; visitors 
drawn to, by Tercentenary, 336; 
great beauty of. 336; western shore 
of old crystallines. 374. 377; from 
Port Henry to Bluff Point, 374; the 
glacial. Lake Vermont, 380; the 
Hochelagan Sea, 381 ; present form 
of, 381-82; Isaac Weld's experi- 
ences on, 405 ; compared to Der- 
wentwater, 4 1 6. 

Lake Champlain Association, Officers 
and meetings of. 423. 

Lake Champlain Tercentenary, Samuel 
Champlain and the. See HiLL, 
Henry Wayland. 

Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commis- 
sion of New York, Legislation for 
the, 47-50; members of the, 50, 52; 
organization of the, at Plattsburgh, 
5 1 ; committees constituted by the, 
51-52; work of the. 55-68: Meet- 
ings held at various places, 55; joint 
meetings with the Vermont Commis- 
sion. 55, 58; two problems: A suit- 



Analytical Index 



503 



able celebration, and a suitable per- 
manent memorial to Champlain, 55; 
local interests of two States consid- 
ered and satisfactorily served, 55-56, 
73; general public given a cele- 
bration unexcelled, 56, 73; multi- 
farious details of the vyrork, 56; 
at second meeting in New York 
city the literary exercises were put in 
the hands of Senator Hill, Judge 
Booth and Mr. Lafontaine, 56; this 
committee sought co-operation of Am- 
erica's foremost literary men, 56; and 
of the highest official representatives 
of the nations and states concerned, 
56-57; great scope for the commem- 
orative ceremonies, 57; events in his- 
tory of three nations, 57; richness of 
Revolutionary period, 57; early 
sh-ife of French and Indian, and Brit- 
i^ supremacy, 57; War of 1812, 
57; specially invited guests, 57; 
Committee on Official Invitations, 5 7- 
58; mayors of many American and 
Canadian cities invited, 58; meetings 
of the, at Ticonderoga, Plattsburgh, 
and Burlington in May, 1909, 58; 
numerous meetings in June at Platts- 
burgh, and at Hotel Champlain, head- 
quarters, 58; religious features of the 
celebration on July 4th especially sat- 
isfactory, 58; co-operation of Fed- 
eral troops, and military bodies from 
New York, Vermont, and Canada, 
58-59; delegates from the, confer 
with Federal authorities at Washing- 
ton, 59; advertising the celebration, 
59; literary publications, 59; illus- 
trated press aided, 59; State Educa- 



tion Department published a pamphlet, 
59; Publicity Bureau organized, 59; 
a commemoration medal, 60 ; oil por- 
traits of Champlain, 60 ; co-operation 
of organized bodies in the Champlain 
region, 60; shooting tournament and 
boat races, 60; display of fireworks, 
60; local independent funds raised, 
60; special acknowledgments for as- 
sistance, 61 ; cordial co-operation of 
people of the Champlain Valley, 61 ; 
Gov. Hughes heartily endorsed, 61 ; 
excursion fares secured, 61 ; steamer 
Ticonderoga engaged for the, 61 ; 
docks repaired, 62; paper on the 
geology of the valley prepared, 62; 
hterary program completed May 29th, 
62; Bi-State program of exercises 
formulated, 62 ; religious exercises for 
Sunday, July 4th, 62; week-day 
programmes, spectacular, musical, pa- 
triotic, and literary, 62; the militia 
and the military, 62 ; literary offerings 
and official representation the crowning 
success, 62-63; the voices of three 
great nations, 63; the official Bi-State 
Programme, in full, 63-68; thanks 
to, from Governor Hughes, 198; 
thanks to, from Governor Prouty, 
258; at Isle La Motte. 302; meet- 
ing of, August 13, 1908, 339; Com- 
mittee on Raising Funds for a Monu- 
ment appointed, 339; Committee of 
five on Location and Cost of Monu- 
ment, 339; review of the sites sub- 
mitted to, by Secretary Hill. 339-40; 
hearing on availability of Mt. Defiance 
as site for memorial, 341-42; mo- 
tion regarding site adopted, 342; 



504 



Analytical Index 



further discussion, 342; Vermont 
Commission invited to a joint confer- 
ence, 343; appropriation for joint 
memorial at Crown Point, 343; vote 
of, for site, 343; Committee on Erec- 
tion of Memorial at Crow^n Point, 
343; on Erection of Memorial at 
Bluff Point or Plattsburgh, 344; 
joint meeting of the Committees 
at Columbia University, 345; Bill 
passed by Congress reported to meet- 
ing in Albany, 347; authorized erec- 
tion of the McLellan design, 348; 
Committee on Memorial near Platts- 
burgh authorized to make contract, 
348. 
Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commis- 
sion of New York State, created, 1 8 ; 
Report of the First Commission, 21" 
40: Resolution creating the Commis- 
sion, 2 1 ; members, 22 ; joint meet- 
ing with Vermont Commission, 22 ; a 
tour of inspection, 23-25; conference 
with the Secretary of State, 25-26; 
action taken at joint meeting at Al- 
bany, December 21, 1907, 26; sun- 
dry suggestions, 27; a memorial vol- 
ume recommended, 27-28; approval 
of the Governor in message to Legis- 
lature, 28 ; the Vermont Commission, 
28; popular interest in the matter, 
29; action of patriotic societies, 29- 
31 ; historic importance of the Cham- 
plain region, 31, 32; first Christian 
worship in Vermont, 32; Crown 
Point and Ticonderoga, 32-33; his- 
toric associations, 33; in defense of 
New York's rights, 33-34; exploits 
in three wars, 34-35 ; landmarks 



that should be preserved, 35 ; what 
it is proposed to celebrate, 36; Lake 
Champlain in literature, 36-37 
progress of the Champlain region, 37 
New York and Champlain, 37-38 
Champlain anniversaries elsewhere, 
38; significance of the anniversary of 
1909, 38; recommendation: An act 
to provide for the celebration, 39-40. 

Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commis- 
sion of Vermont, Members of the, 52; 
joint meetings of, with New York 
Commission, 55, 58; thanks extended 
to, 61 ; guests at the review at Platts- 
burgh Barracks, 79; thanks to, from 
Governor Prouty, 332; Official Re- 
port of the, 335 ; cordial relations 
with New York Commission, 335 ; 
Bi-State programme of exercises, 
335 ; invited to conference on site for 
memorial, 343; resolution of, for 
Crown Point as site, 343; to con- 
tribute balance of money for the 
memorial, 343; joint meeting of the 
Committees at Columbia University, 
345. 

Lake Champlain Yacht Club, Regatta 
of the, at Burlington, 254. 

Lake Como. 9, 141. 

Lake Erie, The French crossed, 111. 

Lake George, Dieskau defeated by Gen. 
W. Johnson at, 5, 154-55; named 
by Gen. Wm. Johnson, 155; vast 
flotilla of Gen. Abercromby on, 157; 
drum-beat rumbles from, 1 68 ; 
Champlain learned of, 362. 

" Lake George and Lake Champlain," 
by W. Max Reid, 59. 



Analytical Index 



505 



Lake Herocoies, Governor Winthrop 
calls Lake Champlain, 390. 

Lake Huron, Champlain first white man 
to see, 364. 

Lake Lugano, 1 4 L 

Lake Maggiore, 9, 141. 

Lake Nippissing crossed by Champlain, 
364. 

Lake Ontario, French forts on south 
shore of, I ; Champlain first white 
man to cross, 364-65. 

Lake St. Peter crossed, 147, 356. 

Lake Simcoe, 365. 

Lake Valcour, a supposed pre-glacial 
lake, 379. 

Lake Vermont, a glacial Lake Cham- 
plain. 380-81. 

Lakes, Great fresh water, 379-80. 

Lalande, companion of Jogues, killed, 
388. 

Lalemant, Gabriel, Jesuit martyr, 123, 

Lamothe-Cadillac founded Detroit, 272. 

Landmarks that should be preserved, 35. 

Lands, French grants of, in and about 
Lake Champlain, 1, 397; not con- 
firmed, 1-2; not occupied, 397; 
many British grants not taken up, 397; 
contest between New York and New 
Hampshire over, 398. 

Language and literature, A common, 
295. 

Laramee, Abbe, of Redford, N. Y., 
303. 

Lascelles, Frank, manager of Quebec 
Tercentenary, consulted, 15, 358. 

Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, interested in a cele- 
bration, 16-17; a descendant of early 
French stock, 123; and the Georgian 
Canal, 206. 



Laval-Montmorency, Francois Xavier 
de, pioneer bishop of Canada, 301 ; 
Mgr. Roy a successor to, 303; in 
vision of the past, 306, 308; at Isle 
La Motte, 315; visits Fort Ste. 
Anne, 389. 

Le Caron, Joseph, Inspiration in exam- 
ple of. 213. 

Leclerc, interpreter, 272. 

Lecocq, Rev. Abbe, preached sermon at 
services at Isle La Motte, 303. 

Legaspi, Statue of, and Erdinator, in 
Manila, 194. 

Legislation and organization, 47-52 
Acts and amended Acts, 47-50 
members of the Commission, 50-52 
organization, 5 1 ; committees, 5 I -52 
members of the Vermont Commission, 

52. 
Lemieux, Rodolphe, Remarks of, at 
Plattsburgh Barracks, 205-6: Cana- 
dian people and American the same, 
205 ; French and English a Canadian 
combination, 205 ; President Taft a 
Canadian neighbor, 205 ; Champlain 
and Hudson, 205-6; men who be- 
long to humanity, 206; President 
Taft on remarks of, 230; guest at 
banquet to President Taft, 233; re- 
marks at banquet, 243-47: President 
Taft, 243; the celebration, 243-44; 
Canada and the United States, ex- 
change of population, 244; com- 
mercially, 245; politically, 245-46; 
development of Canada, 246-47; 
speech at Burlington, 269-74: The 
Quebec Tercentenary, 269; three 
nations there and here, 269; the 
Champlain Valley hallowed ground. 



506 



Analytical Index 



270; the highway of war and travel, 
270; the French pioneers, n\-ll\ 
the Puritans and the Pilgrim Fathers, 
272-73; the en/enfe cordiale, 273- 
74; toast: Canada, 293-97; Presi- 
dent Taft settled down and up in 
Canada yearly, 294; Canadian set- 
tlers in United States, and in Civil 
War, 294; a common language and 
literature, 295; Emerson and the 
New England poets, 295 ; Parkman, 
295-96; Henry Hudson, 296; 
Champlain, examples, 296-97; rep- 
resented Canada, 3 1 8. 

Leo the XIII and the Philippines, 195. 

Leroles, M. de, taken prisoner by Mo- 
hawks, 388. 

Lescarbot, Marc, Efforts of, for a New 
France, unsuccessful, 2 1 0. 

Lester, Col. James W., Second Regi- 
ment. N. G. N. Y., in camp at Platts- 
burgh Barracks, 77-78. 

Letter of transmission, iii. 

Levasseur, A., secretary to Gen. La- 
fayette, 41 1. 

Levis, Francois Gaston, at Fort Ste. 
Anne, 33; at Fort Carillon, 182, 
215; in the vision of the past, 305, 
308. 

Levis Channel, The, 376; closed, 378; 
restored after uncounted ages, 381. 

Libretto of the play of Hiawatha, 425- 
63. 

Life of common men made better, 328- 
30. 

Lighthall, W. D., The "Master of 
Life"by. 88, 427. 

Limestones, The, 378. 



Lindsey, Mgr., archdeacon of Quebec, 
303. 

Linnet, The, in English squadron at 
Cumberland Bay, 1 63, I 64. 

Lion Couchant, Le, 220. 

Literary offerings, the crowning success, 
62. 

Literary programme. A, to be perfected, 
56; Committee on, selected, 56; 
completion of, announced, 62. 

Literature and language, A common, 
295. 

Littebrant, Capt. W. T., commanding 
squadron of Fifteenth United States 
Cavalry, 75. 

Lloyd, Brig.-Gen. James H., command- 
ing Third Brigade, N. G., 76; thanks 
of the Commission due, 76; in camp 
with his troops, 77; in command of 
second division, the Canadian troops, 
in parade at Plattsburgh, 232. 

Local programmes of sports and con- 
tests. Rivalry in, 73. 

'* Logan's Fault," 374. 

L'Oiseau, Rev. Father, S. J., of Mon- 
treal, pronounced a final allocution, 
303. 

London, Historical pageants at, 1 3. 

Long House of the Iroquois, The, 208; 
government and territory of the, 209; 
only barrier against incursions of 
Canadian French and Indians, 2, 
208, 213-14; honor to, 214, 234. 

Long Island in Champlain's path, 148. 

Loomis, Daniel A., member of Commit- 
tee on Commissary, 52; assistance 
rendered by, 6 1 . 



Analytical Index 



507 



Loring, Capt., of Amherst's army, pur- 
sued French vessels near Valcour 
Island. 23. 

Lotbinlere, Michael Eustace Gaspard, 
contended for land grants, 397. 

Louis XIV, The forerunners of, 211" 
12. 

Louisburg to be taken, 158; Pepperrell 
at, 213. 

Louisiana, name given by La Salle, 271. 

Louisiana purchase. The, 111. 

Low, SeTH, Address at Crown Point, 
July 5, 120-25: New France ante- 
dates New England, 120; "New 
Netherlands" of the Dutch, 120; 
the plough gives better title to land 
than sword or gun, 1 20 ; battle with 
Iroquois fatal to France, 121 ; as 
many Indians living to-day as then, 
121-22; a feudal France, ended in 
two revolutions, 122; French names 
of prosperous communities, 123; 
Jesuit, 123; French occupation of 
Crown Point, brought on a crisis, 
123-24; defeat of France led to 
American Revolution, 1 24 ; control 
of the lake meant control of the re- 
gion, 1 24-25 ; amity of five peoples 
concerned, 1 25 ; remarks at Ticon- 
deroga, 176-77; queries as to place 
of Champlain's fight and name of Fort 
Frederic answered by popular vote, 
1 76 ; destinies of the continent settled 
by a few men, 1 76-77. 

Lower Canada, The French population 
of. 186. 

Lower Silurian, Period of the, 376. 



Ludden, Rt. Rev. Bp. Patrick W., at 
service at Cliff Haven on Champlain 
Sunday, 102. 

Lyman. Gen. Phineas, built Fort Ly- 
man (Fort Edward), 153. 

MABIE, HAMILTON 
W R I G H T.— The Story of 
Lake Champlain, 147-65: The dis- 
covery, 147-48; a great figure ap- 
pears, 149-51; seeds of conflict, 
151-53; a frontier baron: Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, 153-56; the decisive 
struggle, 156; Montcalm, 156-57; 
the defeat at Ticonderoga, 158; the 
colonists in arms, 158-59; the strug- 
gle to command the Lake, 159-61; 
Benedict Arnold, 161; Burgoyne at 
Ticonderoga, 161-63; the Battle of 
Plattsburgh, 163-64; a century of 
peace brings ancient foes together as 
modern friends. 1 64-65 ; fair 
France. England, Canada, the Indian 
welcomed by their host, the United 
States, 165. 

McCloskey, John, prelate, in vision of 
the past. 306, 308. 

McComb, Alexander, Tablet to, 400. 

McCuen, Hon. Robert W., moved joint 
resolution for appointment of Vermont 
Commission, 1 5 ; member of Commis- 
sion, 16, 28. 

Macdonough, Rodney, an invited guest, 
57. 

Macdonough, Commander Thomas, 
Naval victory of, 8-9. 34. 1 34. 1 63- 
64. 228. 328. 364; Congress 
awarded gold medal to. 9; Theodore 
Roosevelt on, 9, 1 99 ; Commissioners 



508 



Analytical Index 



visit site of victory of, 23; in Cum- 
berland Bay, 141, 174; tribute of 
Governor Hughes to, 199-200; be- 
longs to humanity, 206; in vision of 
the past, 305, 308; fleet of, at Isle 
La Motte, 316; there should be a 
statue of, at Cumberland Head, 340; 
inscription on tablet to, 399; fleet of, 
built near Vergennes, 407. 

Macdonough National Military Park, 
398. 

Macdonough's farm near Plattsburgh, 
416. 

Mac Kaye, Percy. — Ticonderoga, A 
ballad. 1 66-75 : The White Cheva- 
lier, " Champlain," 167; the Iro- 
quois, 167; Maqua and wild Algon- 
quin, 168; Abercromby, Howe, 
Stark, Montcalm, 169; Putnam, 
death of Howe. 170. 172; the 
abatis, 171; Ethan Allen, 172-74; 
the Roycl Savage 1 74 ; Carleton, 
Mount Defiance, Burgoyne, Macdon- 
ough, 1 74. 

McKinley, William, visited Isle La 
Motte, 315. 

McLaughlin, Chester B.. President of 
Lake Champlain Association. 423. 

McLellan, Hugh, competing architect, 
345; design of, accepted. 346; de- 
scription of the design for memorial, 
346-47; erection of design of, or- 
dered, 348. 

McMahon, Rt. Rev. Dennis J., Address 
of, at service at Cliff Haven on Cham- 
plain Sunday. 102-3; presided at 
celebration July 7th. address, 191- 
92 : Three Presidents as guests, 191; 
the School. 1 9 1 -92 ; introduced Gov- 



ernor Hughes. 1 92 ; introduced Pres- 
ident Taft. 193; introduced Cardinal 
Gibbons, 196. 

McMahon, M. D., member of Vermont 
Commission, 1 6, 28. 

Macomb, General Alexander, retreated 
from Plattsburgh, 1 63. 

McSherry. Rev. P. S., Bp. of South 
Africa, at the service at Cliff Haven 
on Champlain Sunday, 1 02, 1 03. 

Magellan, The skiffs of, 186; and 
Legaspi, in the Philippines, 194; the 
equal of Columbus, 264. 

Magnetic iron ore, 377. 

Magpie Islands, The. 2 1 6. 

Mahan. Capt. A. T.. on the little Amer- 
ican navy on Lake Champlain, 7 ; his 
idea of influence of sea power illus- 
trated. 125. 

Malby, George R., David J. Foster on 
work done by, in putting bill through 
Congress, 1 79 ; at banquet to Presi- 
dent Taft, 233. 

Man. The divinity of, 332. 

Manley, The, torpedo boat, took part in 
the Lake celebration, 76, 85 ; naval 
escort to the President, 76. 

Maqua, the Mohawk Indians, 1 68. 

Marauding parties in the French inter- 
est. 396. 

Marion. Abbe, cure of Ste. Anne of 
Ottawa, niaster of ceremonies, 303. 

Marjoribanks. Alexander. compared 
scenery to Island of Bute and Firth of 
Clyde. 421. 

Marquette. Jacques, 150; inspiration in 
example of, 213; discovered the Mis- 
sissippi, 271 ; in the vision of the 
past, 306. 308. 



Analytical Index 



509 



Massachusetts sent men against the 
French. 214. 

Massacre near Fort William Henry, 
156. 

"Master of Life." The. by W. D. 
Lighthall, gives the story of Hiawatha, 
88. 

Matet, leader of band against Mohawk 
towns, 391. 

Matheson. Rev. James, at the Lake, 4 1 4. 

Matthews. Mr., in "A Summer 
Month," describes Plattsburgh and 
Burlington. 409-10. 

Maude, John, described the Champlain 
Valley, 36. 

Maurepas, Frederic, French Secretary of 
Foreign Affairs, Fort Frederic named 
for. 5. 363. 393. 

Mavjlojver, The, eleven years later than 
the Don de Dieu, 1 20. 

Mayors of many American and Cana- 
dian cities invited, 58. 

Meads, L. R., at hearing, 341. 

Medley, Julius George, found scenery 
of Lake Champlain inferior to that of 
Lake George, 422. 

Pvlemorial. permanent, Resolution of 
joint Commissions recommending a, 
26; resolution of Daughters of Am- 
erican Revolution recommending, 30. 

Memorial volume of the celebration rec- 
ommended, 27-28. 

Men, The, whose exploits made history, 
143-46. 

Menendez, Colony of, destroyed by the 
Gascon de Gorgues, 209-10. 

Menu cards at the banquet. 233. 

Mer des Iroquois, French name of Lake 
Champlain, 141, 363. 



Merritt, Edwin A., Jr., at banquet to 
President Taft. 233. 

Mesopotamia, unfolding its ancient life, 
366. 

Mexico, Champlain visited. 356. 

Michaud, Sgr., in vision of the past, 306, 
308. 

Mihtary and naval features, 73-79; 
public interested in the, 74; success 
of. 318. 

Military and Naval Committee, Report 
of. 75-79. 

Military glory passes in vision of the 
past. 305, 308; felicitates Champlain. 
306. 308. 

Military organizations, voluntary, of 
Canada, Co-operation of, arranged 
for. 58; participation of the. 62. 

Military review at Ticonderoga, 1 39. 

Militia of Vermont, Co-operation of, ar- 
ranged for, 58; participation of the. 
62. 

Milton. John, born, 330. 

Milwaukee, Salomon Juneau, father of, 
272. 

Minoan age immediately succeeded the 
Neolithic. 366. 

Missionaries, the French, Cardinal Gib- 
bons on, 107; Rt. Rev. Prevel on. 

305. 307; in the vision of the past. 

306, 308. 

Missionary, The black-robed, 270. 
Missisquoi Bay, P. Stansbury describes, 

409. 
Mississippi, Colonization of the lower, 

111,213; La Salle descended the, 

265. 
Mitre, Most Rev. Abbe, of Oka, Don 

Antoine. 303. 



510 



Analytical Index 



Mohawk River, Sir W. Johnson hved 
on the, 153. 

Mohawk towns. Raid upon, 391. 

Mohawk Valley, The, to the south, 148; 
plan to take possession of, 161. 

Mohawks, The, one of the Five nations, 
208; chief of, killed by Champlain, 
210; boundary between Hurons and, 
222, 389; feasted by Burgoyne, 
229; Lake the home of the, 358-59; 
foes of Algonquins and Hurons, 359; 
easternmost leaders of the Iroquois 
Confederacy, 385 ; murder Father 
Jogues and Lalande, 387-88. 

Monongahela, The decisive struggle be- 
gun on the, 156. 

Monro, Colonel, surrendered Fort Wil- 
liam Henry, 155-56. 

Monroe, James, visited Burlington, Ver- 
gennes, and Plattsburgh, 407. 

Montagnais, 223; party of, with Cham- 
plain, 359. 

Montcalm de Saint- Veran, Louis Joseph, 
Marquis de, victor at Ticonderoga, 3, 
134, 140, 158, 170, 395-96; called 
to defense of Quebec, 3; succeeded 
Dieskau and captured Fort William 
Henry, 5, 395; heroic deeds of, 
118; death of, 124, 157; occupied 
Fort Frederic and moved on to Caril- 
lon, 1 29 ; reproduction of cross of 
victory of, set up, 1 40 ; character of, 
144, 156-57; set up the cross, 144; 
protagonist of the French in the con- 
test, 156; labors before, 157; the 
man and the soldier, 1 8 1 -83 ; hon- 
ored by his enemies, 183; James 
Bryce on, 184; President Taft on, 
1 86 ; inspiration in example of, 213 ; 



the genius of, 214; our tribute to, 
237; the purity and loyalty of, 288; 
in the vision of the past, 305, 308; 
skill and devotion of, 395. 

Montgomery, General Richard, Expe- 
dition in 1 775 under, and Gen. Philip 
Schuyler, 5, 6, 118, 160; captured 
St. John's and Montreal, 6, 160; 
killed at Quebec, 6, 1 60 ; embarked 
from Crown Point, 1 30 ; Frederick 
the Great praised generalship of, 1 60- 
61 ; buried in New York, 160; met 
Gen. Philip Schuyler at Isle La 
Motte, 316; Boulder Monument to 
campaign of, 333. 

Montpelier, Joint meeting of Commis- 
sions at, 55. 

Montreal, captured by Gen. Montgom- 
ery, 6, 160; the future city, 147; 
failure of colony at, 210; four days 
from the Pacific, 270; Champlain 
passed site of, 356. 

Montreal Island called earlier Tiotiake, 
86; and Hochelaga, 90; Iroquois 
driven from, 88, 89. 

Monument Committee instructed to pro- 
cure plans, 342; discharged, 343. 

Monument to Champlain, Crown Point 
the place for a, 129; board of arbi- 
tration suggested to select site for, 
236. 

Moore, Governor Henry, Conference of, 
on Canadian boundary line, with Sir 
Guy Carleton, at Windmill Point, 24, 
363. 

Moore, Commodore J. W., Invited 
guest, 57. 

Moose of Mountains, Mt. Mansfield, 
226. 



Analytical Index 



51 



Morrill, Justin S., 284. 

Moseodebewadso, Indian name of Mt. 
Mansfield. 226. 

Motor boat contest arranged for, 60. 

Mount Defiance fortified by Burgoyne, 
140; Abercromby's neglected oppor- 
tunity, 158; Gen. Phillips occupies, 
1 62, I 74; land on, offered as site for 
memorial, 341. 

Mount Desert Island, Champlain's de- 
scription of, 264. 

Mt. Mansfield. 133, 148. 31 1 ; Moseo- 
debewadso, Moose of Mountains, 
midst the snows, 226. 

Mount Marcy, 148, 311; Tahawas. 
the wedge that splits the sky, 226. 

Mt. Trembleau, 375. 

Mt. White Face, 133. 148; Waho- 
partenie, 226. 

Mountain tops should be kept open, 268. 

Mullany, James A., 341. 

Murray, Charles Augustus, rode from 
Ogdensburgh to Plattsburgh. 414; 
charmed with Burlington, 414-15. 

Murray Bay. Canada, President Taft's 
residence at, 186; will welcome him 
back, 205 ; President Taft on, 230. 

Murray Highlanders. French descend- 
ants of the. 1 86. 

Musical features suggested. 27. 

Myers, John R., member of committees. 
51 ; assistance rendered by. 61. 

NABBYCROMBIE. MRS., 158. 
Nadeau, Fred, owner of Crown 
Point. 32. 
Napoleon, admirer cf Ossian, 181. 
Nation, Establishment of a new, 234; 
a closely united people, 235, 260; 



three hundred years* development of 
a. 256. 

National Guard of New York, Co- 
operation of bodies from the, arranged 
for, 58; participation of the, 62, 76- 
78; officers in command of the, 76; 
Third Brigade ordered to encamp for 
field service at Crown Point and 
Plattsburgh Barracks, 76; defeated 
by the Indians in sham battle at Ti- 
conderoga, 90. 

Nations, Three, contended for posses- 
sion of this region, 4; events in the 
history of, to be celebrated, 57; 
voices of, heard, 63, 118; descend- 
ants of, honor Montcalm, 144; say 
" never do it again," 1 85 ; fit place 
for celebration of, 185; amity and 
concord of, 1 98, 204 ; few spots for 
joint celebration by, 203; James 
Bryce on, 240; at Quebec and Lake 
Champlain, 269; in unity in the cele- 
bration, 279; distinguished citizens 
of, 314, 315; bonds of friendship of 
the, strengthened, 335. 

Naval engagements on Lake Champlain, 
Two, 3; under Benedict Arnold, 7; 
under Macdonough, 8-9; near Val- 
cour Island, 23; tablets in commemo- 
ration of, 399. 

Naval exhibit. The, see United States. 

Navy, Flotilla from, 76, 85. 

Neeser's " Statistical Tables of the U. S. 
Navy," 9 note, 23. 

Nelson, Coad. Bp. Richard H. — 
Sermon in Plattsburgh on Champlain 
Sunday, 1 09-1 3 : Attempts of various 
nations to secure America, 109; di- 
vided between Spain and Portugal by 



512 



Analytical Index 



Pope Alexander VI. 109; France 
and England rivals for possession, 
110; Verrazano and Cartier, 110; 
Champlain and his colonial policy, 
110; English adventurers, 110-11; 
importance of fur trade, 110-11; 
" The Gentlemen Adventurers of 
England " and the Hudson Bay Co., 
Ill; the French on the lower Mis- 
sissippi, 111; the French and Eng- 
lish wars and loss of Canada, 111; 
relations of Canada and the United 
States, 112; religion in the history of 
the nation, 112; England and France 
Catholic countries, 112; an American 
Catholic Church, 113; services of the 
Roman Catholic Church to the Amer- 
ican people, 1 1 3. 

Nero held artist a prisoner, 331. 

New Amsterdam transferred to the Eng- 
lish, 211; work of the Dutch in, 234. 

New Brunswick, Champlain mapped 
coast of, 357. 

New England earlier known as " New 
France," 120; Champlain mapped 
the coast of, 327. 

New England coast, Champlain explored 
and mapped the, 357; extended 
farther eastward than now, 376. 

New Foundland, Champlain at the 
Banks of, 356. 

" New France," as a name, did not ad- 
here, 120; Parkman on, 122; mon- 
uments of the founders of, 123; con- 
testing for pre-eminence, 143; voy- 
ager between France and, 21 7, 237; 
highway between, and New England, 
270; to found a, Champlain's ideal. 



304, 307; Jacques Cartier gave the 
name, 355; Champlain's voyages to, 
357; restored to French King by 
England, 365. 

New Hampshire sent men against the 
French, 214. 

New Hampshire grants. The, 259, 260, 
265. 

New Jersey sent men against the French, 
214. 

" New Netherlands," as a name, ad- 
hered. 120. 

New Orleans founded. 111; tradition of 
French at, 1 50. 

New World, England and France rivals 
for possession of the, 110; contribu- 
tion of France to making of the, 1 49 ; 
great figures in morning light of the, 
150; the "far-flung battle line" in 
the, 156. 

New York city. Plan to seize, 161. 

New York Colony, Expeditions from, 
against French and Indians, 33-34; 
colonial governors of, advocated build- 
ing a fort on Lake Champlain, 393. 

New York Legislature, Concurrent reso- 
lution of, appointing a Commission, 
17, 21; adopted. 22 ; Act to provide 
for the celebration of the Tercenten- 
ary. 39-49, 49-50, 349; Act of, ac- 
cepting gift of lands at Crown Point, 
344. 

New York Historical Association, 
Twelfth annual meeting, 4-6; Octo- 
ber, 1910. held on Steamer Vermont, 
423. 

New York Province, Crucial circum- 
stances in history of, 14. 



Analytical Index 



513 



New York senators and assemblymen, 
guests at the review at Plattsburgh, 
79. 

New York State, Probable result if 
Champlain had claimed territory of, 
in name of Henry IV, 1 ; part of, 
might have been included in domain 
of Canada, 2 ; struggle of France and 
England for territory of, 31 ; repre- 
sented by its executive head, 62-63; 
the big brother of Vermont, 146; in- 
formally picturesque language of, 
154; sent men against the French, 
214; congratulated by President 
Taft, 235 ; thanks to, from Governor 
Prouty, 258. 

New Yorker. Emotion of a, upon Ver- 
mont soil, 259. 

New Zealand. 329. 

Newfoundland, Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
on, 110; Verrazano claimed, for 
France, 110; French fishermen at, 
150. 

Newport, Christopher, Colonists of, at 
Jamestown, 210. 

Newspapers and magazines devoted il- 
lustrated articles to the celebration, 
59. 

Newton, I. C, at hearing, 341. 

Niagara, Fort at, 153, 158. 

Niagara Falls, Champlain learns of, 
356. 

Nicollet, Jean, 150; inspiration in ex- 
ample of, 213. 

Noailles, Marechal de, on Montcalm, 
181. 

Normandy and Brittany, French sailors 
and explorers from the harbors of, 
149-50. 
34 



North, Mrs. Clayton N., presented 

Boulder Monument to the State, 333. 
North West Bay, 222. 
North West Co. organized. 111. 
Northern ice-pack, Champlain gazed on 

the, 217. 
Northland, The, passes to the Gaul, 

219. 
Nouvelle France, The wondrous land of, 

215. 
Nova Scotia, Champlain mapped coast 

of, 357. 

O'DRIEN. HON. JOHN F.. 
^ Assistance rendered by, 61. 

" O God, beneath thy guiding hand," 
hymn, 98. 

" O God of Bethel, by whose hand," 
hymn, 94. 

Old Crown Point, see Crown Point, and 
Barnes, Albert C. 

Oneidas, one of the Five nations, 208; 
council house of the, 223. 

Onondaga Lake, Champlain wounded 
near, 365. 

Onondagas, The, one of the Five na- 
tions, 208. 

Ontario, Lake, discovered by Cham- 
plain, 327. 

Ontario, Province of. Premier and Gov- 
ernor-General of, invited, 58. 

Order of service for July 4th, Cham- 
plain Sunday, 93-101. 

Oregon Territory, Title to the, estab- 
lished by settlers, 1 20. 

Organization, see Legislation and organi- 
zation. 

Organized bodies resident in Champlain 
region. Co-operation of, desired, 60. 



514 



Analytical Index 



Orient, Holland in the, 211; wealth of 
the, within grasp, 270. 

Ostemoy, The, 223. 

O'Sullivan, Rev. Dennis, preached ser- 
mon at services at Isle La Motte, 303. 

O'Sullivan, Rev. W. J., officiated at 
vesper service at Burlington, on 
Champlain Sunday, 101. 

Oswego, Plan to capture, 161. 

Ottawa River explored by Champlain, 
110,206,269, 327.364. 

Ottawas feasted by Burgoyne, 8. 

Otter River called Wonakakatuk, 226; 
celebration at Fort Cassin on, 334. 

Owen, Robert L., senator from Okla- 
homa, a Cherokee Indian, 122. 

PACIFIC, The, three centuries ago 
and now, 329. 

Painting, Masterpieces of, before 1609, 
332. 

Palmer, Peter S., historian, on activities 
on Lake Champlain, 5~6, 8. 

Paltsits, Victor H., State Historian, at 
the first joint meeting of the Commis- 
sioners, 22; assistance rendered by, 
61. 

Panama, Champlain first said there 
should be a canal at, 206, 269, 356. 

Panton, Arnold, at, 328. 

Parade and review at Burlington, 280. 

Parker, Mrs. E. S., great-granddaugh- 
ter of Seth Warner. 334. 

Parker, Capt. O. H., commanding Com- 
pany " M '* of Vermont National 
Guard, 302. 

Parkman, Francis, on Lake Champlain, 
5? on New France, 122; on the 



Seven Years* War, 156; a name 
grateful to Canadian ears, 295. 

Past, Vision of the, 305-6. 307. 

Patriotic and Fraternal Society Day at 
Burlington, 254. 

Patriotic societies. Secretary instructed to 
procure data relative to, 27; action 
of, 29-3 1 ; Daughters of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, 29-30; Society of 
the Colonial Wars, 30-31 ; other, in 
the Champlain valley, 31 ; assistance 
of many, acknowledged, 61 ; of Ver- 
mont women erect Boulder Monu- 
ment. 333. 

Patriotism, Historic celebrations in- 
centives to. 14; pride in our local, 
235. 

Patten. Edmund, found Burlington ho- 
tels inferior, 420; disturbed by 
noises of freight handling, 420; 
praised customs arrangements and 
travel facilities. 421. 

Paulding, Col. William, valuable assist- 
ance from. 61 ; and Twenty- fourth 
United States Infantry, 75 ; in the 
parade at Plattsburgh. 232. 

Peace. World-wide reign of. in 20th 
century, 242; the arts of, most civil- 
izing, 273; our gathering of these 
representatives a guarantee of. 288; 
what shall we do with it? 288. 

Pean. Sieur. Major of Quebec, received 
grant of Isle La Motte, 316. 

Pell, Howland, member of New York 
Commission, 50, 52; on committees. 
5 1 ; and Mr. Witherbee visited Gov- 
ernor's Island, 58; report of Mili- 
tary and Naval Committees, 75-79; 
received President Taft and party at 



Analytical Index 



515 



Ticonderoga, 139; on Funds for a 
Monument Committee, 339; on Com- 
mittee on Location and Cost of Monu- 
ment, 339; presented claims of Ti- 
conderoga, 341 ; on Committee on 
Erection of Memorial at Crown Point, 
343; at joint meeting with Vermont 
Committee, 345-46; reported pas- 
sage of bill by Congress, 347. 

Pell, Stephen H. P., Assistance of, ac- 
knowledged, 61 ; received and enter- 
tained President Taft and party at 
Ticonderoga, 1 39. 

Pell, William F., Ticonderoga owned 
by, and his descendants, 33. 

Pell family. Fort Ticonderoga rebuilt by, 
141 ; patriotism of the, 145. 

Pelletier, Sir Adolphe, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of Quebec, guest at banquet to 
President Taft, 233. 

Pelletier, Rev. J. N., pastor of St. 
Peter's Church, Pittsburgh, 231. 

Pennsylvania sent men against the 
French, 214. 

Penobscot Bay, The Half Moon repair- 
ing in, 2 1 0. 

People of Canada and America alike, 
205. 

Pepperrell at Louisburg, 2 1 3. 

Perrault, interpreter, 272. 

Perry, Com. Oliver Hazard, Victory of, 
125. 

Persia awakening, 330. 

Peru Bay, formerly Corlaer's Bay, 390. 

Peta-ou-bough, '* a double lake branch- 
ing into two," name of Lakes Cham- 
plain and George, 389. 

Peta-wa-bouque, Indian name of Cham- 
plain valley, 141, 363. 



Phelps, Edward J., 284. 

Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, 13. 

Philip the Second, Decline of Spanish 
power with death of, 2 1 0"! 1 , 

Philippines, President Taft's experience 
in the, 1 94-95. 

Phillips, General, officer with Burgoyne, 
162. 

Phillipsburgh, P. Stansbury describes, 
409. 

Phoenix, Burning of the, described by 
Frances Wright, 408; carried La- 
fayette, 411; James Stuart on, 4 1 3. 

Phoenix, The new lake steamer, 423. 

Pierron, Father Jean, labored at Fort 
Ste. Anne, 33, 389. 

Pilgrim Fathers built the American na- 
tion, 273; came eleven years before 
Champlain, 315. 

Pilotois, The, 223. 

Pitt, William, to Grenville on the loss 
of Ticonderoga, 3; master, 328. 

Pizarro, a great explorer, 264. 

Place of Scalps, The, 225. 

Place where echoes dwell, Cheonderoga, 
226. 

Plains of Abraham, The, 1 86, 269. 

Plattsburgh, Battle of, land and naval, 
Tablets in commemoration of the, 
400; described by Miss Frances 
Wright, 408. 

Plattsburgh, N. Y., Bi-State programme 
of celebration exercises at, July 7th, 
65. See, also, beloiv, Plattsburgh 
Barracks, Literary exercises at, 197- 
232. 

Plattsburgh, Celebration exercises to be 
held at, 37, 366; engagements in 
War of 1812 at and near^ 34; joint 



516 



Analytical Index 



meeting of Commissions at, 55; visit 
of Commission to, 58; meetings at, 
58; portrait of Champlain to be given 
to a French Society at, 60 ; fireworks 
on successive evenings at, 60 ; fund of 
$ 1 0,000 raised at, 60 ; Bi-State pro- 
gramme of celebration exercises at, 
62, 65 ; parade and review at, 75 ; 
Indian pageants given at, 86; ser- 
mon at Trinity Episcopal Church, by 
Bp. Richard H. Nelson, on Cham- 
plain Sunday, 109-13; defeat of the 
British at, 126; the battle of, 163- 
64; the second Salamis, 228; 
" French Day " at, 231 ; mass and 
sermon in St. Peter's Church, 231 ; 
civic parade with floats, 231 ; address 
at St. Peter's College, 231; Indian 
pageants at mouth of the Saranac, and 
fireworks, 232; Committee on 
memorial near, 344, 348; military 
post established at, 398 ; James Mon- 
roe's visit to, 407-8; described by 
Mr. Matthews. 409 ; Capt. T. Ham- 
ilton on Prevost's rout at, 415; pane- 
gyric of James Dixon on the Lake at, 
418-19. 

Plattsburgh, New York Tercentenary 
Parade, July 7th, at, 231-32; mili- 
tary organizations in the, 232; Col. 
C. D. Cowles, grand marshal, 232; 
President and party. Brigade of 
U. S. I., Canadian troops, G. A. R., 
civic organizations, 232. 

Plattsburgh Barracks, Literary exercises 
at, H. Wallace Knapp, chairman, 
197-232: Address of chairman, 
197; address of Governor Hughes, 
198-200; address of Governor 



Prouty, 200-1 ; address of Ambas- 
sador Jusserand, 201-3; address of 
Ambassador Bryce, 203-4; address 
of Rodolphe Lemieux, 205-6; His- 
torical address: The Iroquois and the 
Struggle for America, by Elihu 
Root, 207-14; Poem: Champlain 
and Lake Champlain, by Daniel L. 
Cady, 215-29; remarks of Presi- 
dent Taft, 230; evening parade at, 
231; New York regiments at, during 
Civil War, 398. 

Plattsburgh Barracks, The review at, a 
brilliant affair, 78-79, 197; 2,500 
guests in grand stand, 78; distin- 
guished guests, 78-79, 197. 

Plattsburgh Rod and Gun Club, The, 
arranged a shooting tournament for the 
celebration, 60. 

Plattsburgh, The, steam cutter, took 
part in naval celebration, 76, 85. 

Plessis, The, prelates, in vision of the 
past, 306, 308. 

Plough, The, superior to the sword in 
giving title to land, 1 20, 1 22. 

Plumley, Frank, Remarks at Ticon- 
deroga, 1 79-80 ; the long and the 
short of the Vermont delegation, 
1 79 ; the foothills of Vermont and 
of the Adirondacks embracing the 
Lake between, 180; at banquet to 
President Taft, 233. 

Plymouth, English settlement at, 110; 
Champlain in harbor sixteen years be- 
fore the Pilgrims, 357. 

Plymouth Rock, The Pilgrims landed 
on, eleven years after Champlain dis- 
covered the lake. 120, 149. 315; 
over a decade away, 1 26. 



Analytical Index 



517 



Poetry, The masterpieces of, before 

1609. 332. 
Pointe au Far fortified for protection of 
sick American soldiers, 6, 24, 316; 
held by the British till 1788, 8, 24; 
occupied by Burgoyne in 1777, 24, 
220.316. 
Poison. Francois, at Fort Ste. Anne, 

389. 
Ponce de Leon came and left no trace, 

209. 
Pontgrave, Sieur de, and Champlain at 
Quebec. 210, 215, 356; in charge 
of colony, 359. 
Port Fortune. 216. 
Port Henry. 222. 

Port Royal. Celebration of 300th anni- 
versary of founding of, 38, 2 1 0. 
Portraits in oil of Champlain by Mrs. L. 
Kirby-Parrish, 60 ; disposition of, 60. 
Portsmouth, N. H., International peace 

conference at, 1 78. 
Portugal in Brazil, 211. 
Portuguese navigators, 355. 
Potsdam sandstones. The, 377-78. 
Poutrincourt, Jean de Biencourt, Sieur 
de. Efforts of. for a New France, un- 
successful, 210, 215. 
Pragmatic Sanction, The, 1 1 3. 
Praise of famous men, The, selection for 

Champlain Sunday, 100-1. 
Prayer, A, for Champlain Sunday, 

97-98. 
Prayer for our country. A, Champlain 

Sunday, 97. 
Preble, The, one of Macdonough's fleet, 

228. 
President of the United States, The, 
235. 



President's Day, July 8th, at Burling- 
ton. 254. 
Press. We have no national, 235; in- 
fluence of the. on post-prandial dis' 
cussions. 282. 
Press. The, of Vermont and New York, 

approve the project, 29. 
Press-clipping bureau. Services of a, en- 
listed. 59. 
Preston. Willard, president of college at 

Burlington, 411. 
Pr^vel. Rev. Thomas A.. Address 
of welcome at Ste. Anne's, 303; 
address July 9th, in French, 304-6; 
in English, 306-8; Champlain pas- 
tor of his people. 304, 306; restrains 
barbarism. 304. 307; savages salute 
the cross. 305, 307; the Past 
awakened in a vision. 305-6. 308. 
Prevert. Sieur, in expedition with Cham- 
plain. 356. 
Prevost. Sir George. English massed un- 
der, 163; entered Plattsburgh. 163; 
Capt. Blane on defeat of, 410; Mr. 
Beaufoy on defeat of. 412; Capt. 
T. Hamilton on the rout of. 415. 
Princess Victoria, Steamer, from Mon- 
treal, 416. 
Pring, Capt., erected battery on Isle La 

Motte, 3 1 6. 
Pringle. Capt., in charge of British fleet 
which defeated Benedict Arnold on 
Lake Champlain, 7. 
Proctor. Gov. Fletcher D., approved 
resolution for Vermont Commission, 
and named members. 15. 16. 28; 
called the matter to the attention of 
Sen. H. W. Hill, 16; at joint meet- 
ing of Commissions. 22; assistance 



518 



Analytical Index 



rendered by, 61 ; suggested the Ter- 
centenary, 3 1 7. 

Proctor, Senator Redfield, at conference 
of Sub-Committee with Secretary 
Root. 25. 43. 

Programmes, Combination of features in 
the, 62. 

Progress and development of 300 years, 
256. 

Prouty, Gov. George H., chairman 
of Vermont Commission, 52; assist- 
ance rendered by, 61 ; with staff at 
review at Plattsburgh Barracks, 78; 
proclaimed July 4th as Champlain 
Sunday, 93; at Ticonderoga, 142; 
address: The soil of New York, 1 45 ; 
good will, and co-operation of New 
York, 146; lessons of the celebration, 
1 46 ; a good second to Gov. Hughes, 
178; remarks of, at Plattsburgh Bar- 
racks, 200-1 ; good wishes of Ver- 
mont, 200; inspiration from the cele- 
bration, 201 ; thanks to State and 
Commission of New York, 201 ; 
guest at banquet to Pres. Taft, 233; 
chairman of Literary exercises at Bur- 
lington, 254; Vermont's official wel- 
come, 255 ; introduced Mayor Burke, 
255-56; thanks to New York and 
its Commission, introducing Gov. 
Hughes, 258; remarks introducing 
Ambassador Jusserand, 261 ; Am- 
bassador Bryce, 263; Rodolphe 
Lemieux, 268; Bliss Carman, 274; 
the first citizen of a new nation, Pres. 
Taft, 278; presided at banquet, 
280; introduced Pres. Taft. 281; 
the head of the show. Gov. Hughes, 
285-86; M. Jusserand. 289; the 



other side, Mr. Bryce, 29 1 ; our 
Canadian friends, M. Lemieux, 293; 
with staff and guests at Isle La Motte, 
302; presided at the Hterary exer- 
cises, 312; introduced Rev. John M. 
Thomas, 312; introduced Sen. H. W. 
Hill, 313-14; the spot Champlain 
landed on, 313-14; praise for. 317; 
the foreign ambassadors and the cele- 
bration, 318-19; introduced Com- 
mander dAzy, 319; presented Gov. 
Hughes, 321 ; snowcapped moun- 
tains, 321 ; presented John Erskine, 
323; introduced W. P. Stafford, 
326; thanks all helpers and the Com- 
mission, 332. 

Providence, Supremacy of, 322. 

Pruyn, Col. John L, in camp at Crown 
Point with Tenth Reg., N. G. N. Y., 
77; moved regiment to Fort Ticon- 
deroga; sham battle under command 
of, 11. 

Publicity Bureau organized and man- 
aged by L. E. Shattuck. 59. 

Puritan reaction. The, begun, 212. 

Puritan tolerance, 194. 

Puritans, The, satisfied to live close by 
the sea, 271 ; courage and patience 
of, 272-73. 

Putnam, Capt. Israel, with Capt. Robt. 
Rogers, attempted to capture Fort 
Frederic, 5, 118; and rangers, 
marching with Abercromby, 1 70. 

QUEBEC, Montcalm needed for de- 
fence of, 3; Gen. Montgomery 
at, 6; Archbishop of. invited to share 
in religious celebration at Isle La 
Motte. 58; Champlain the founder 



Analytical Index 



519 



of, 110; Champlain set sail from, 
147; futile expedition against, 152; 
Wolfe at. 124. 158; Champlain the 
founder of. 180. 327. 357; inscrip- 
tion on tomb of Montcalm at, 183; 
Pontgrave and Champlain at, 210, 
217; wooden fortress of Champlain 
at, 213; Champlain founded and 
died in, 238; Champlain knew how 
to govern, 264, 358; word picture of, 
269; French cavaliers on heights of, 
272; taken, 328; Champlain passed 
site of, 356; terrible winter at, 358. 

Quebec, Province of. Premier and Gov- 
ernor-General of, invited, 58; de- 
scendants of French settlers in, 123; 
Lomer Gouin on the, 247-49; once 
part of New France, 247; glorified 
Champlain the father of the Canadian 
nation, 248; good wishes from, 249. 

Quebec signifies " narrowing of the 
stream," 357. 

Quebec Tercentenary Celebration, 13, 
15, 38,86, 124,243; M. Lemieux 
on the. 269; diplomacy at the, 366; 
Indian contingent at, 427. 

Queen Anne's war begun. 396. 

Quinask, the arm that shielded Shel- 
burne Bay, 226. 

D ACICOT, RT. REV. A, assisted 

* ^ at vesper service at Burlington on 
Champlain Sunday, 101; celebrated 
mass at St. Peter's Church, Platts- 
burgh, 231. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, founder of Hud- 
son Bay Company, 111. 

Rafeix, Jesuit, 389. 



Railroad excursion tickets arranged for, 
61. 

Raines, John, at banquet to Pres. Taft, 
233. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, Attempts of, to 
plant colonies on Roanoke, I 1 0, 
210; man of letters, 181. 

Rappe. Louis Amadeus. prelate, in vision 
of the past, 306, 308. 

Raymond, 215. 

Reed, Rev. Andrew, shocked at rowdy- 
ism in Burlington, 414. 

Regatta, Tercentenary, of the Lake 
Champlain Yacht Club, 254. 

Re-gioch-me. a Mohawk Indian, drowned 
near Split Rock, 389. 

Reid, W. Max, "Lake George and 
Lake Champlain," 59. 

Rejiohne, Dark, boundary for Huron 
and Mohawk. 222. 

Religion, Important part played by, in 
history of the nation, 112; passes 
in the vision of the past, 306, 308; 
felicitates Champlain, 306, 308. 

Religious features of the anniversary. 
Especial stress laid upon the. 58; re- 
sult of. most satisfactory, 58; exer- 
cises appointed for Sunday, July 4th, 
conducted by distinguished prelates, 
62. 

Religious services. Suggestions for hold- 
ing, 27. 

Report of the First Lake Champlain 

Tercentenary Commission, 2 1 -40. 
Republican majorities, 284. 
Resolution, Concurrent, adopted by the 
New York Legislature, appointing a 
Commission. 17. 21. 



520 



Analytical Index 



Resolution, Joint, appointing a Commis- 
sion, passed by the Vermont Legis- 
lature, 15-16. 

Responsive reading, Champlain Sunday, 
95-96. 

Revenge, The, Remains of, preserved in 
fort at Ticonderoga, 1 39. 

Revolutionary period rich in incident, 
34, 57. 

Rhode Island sent men against the 
French, 214. 

Ribaut, Jean, and his Huguenots des- 
troyed by Menendez, 209. 

Richards. W. W.. at hearing, 341. 

Richelieu River, British forces assembling 
on the, 6; Canadian boundary line, 
24; Champlain at the. 147, 207. 
219, 356; a British brig examining 
boats on the, 405-6. 

Ridder, Herman, first vice-president of 
the Hudson-Fulton Commission, 336. 

Riley, John B., member of New York 
Commission, 50, 52; on committees, 
51-52; on Committee to Raise the 
Ro})al Savage, 85 ; on Funds for a 
Monument Committee, 339; resolu- 
tion of, 339; on Committee on Loca- 
tion and Cost of Monument, 339; 
chairman of Committee on a Separate 
Memorial at Bluff Point or Platts- 
burgh, 344. 

River Boquet, Burgoyne feasted Indians 
at camp on, 8, 222, 228. 

River St. Charles, The, 269. 

River Sorell fixed as boundary in 1 766, 
24. 

Riviere de St. Amant, the Saranac, 22 1 . 

Roanoke Island, Sir Walter Raleigh's 
colonies on, 1 1 0. 



Roberts, James Arthur, President New 
York Historical Association, 423. 

Roberval, Jean Francois de la Roque, 
Sieur de. Failure of, 210, 355. 

Rochelle, stronghold of the Huguenots, 
355. 

Rock beds. The ancient, of the valley, 
377, 379. 

Rock Dunder as site for memorial, 343. 

Rocks, Unstable equilibrium in the, 375. 

Roe, Maj.-Gen. Charles F., Valuable 
assistance from, 61 ; in command of 
National Guard, 76; thanks of the 
Commission due, 76; arrival of, at 
Hotel Champlain, 76. 

Rogeo, or Regio, name of Lake Cham- 
plain, 389. 

Rogers, Capt. Robert, famous scout, 
found Chimney Point abandoned, 5 ; 
with Capt. Israel Putnam attempted to 
capture Fort Frederic, 5 ; exploits of, 
34; found Fort Frederic in ruins, 
129. 

Roger's Rock, 1 70. 

Roman Catholic Church, Suggestions 
that religious services be held by, 27; 
honor due the, for services to the 
American people, 113; the United 
States and the, in the Philippines, 
194-95. 

Roman Empire, Idolatry in the, 104; 
Christian religion spread throughout 
the, 105. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, on Macdonough, 
9; approved the celebration, 43; 
visited Isle La Motte. 315. 

Root, Hon. Elihu, Secretary of State, 
Conference of Sub-Committee with, 
25-26, 43; approval and great in- 



Analytical Index 



.21 



terest of, in celebration, 26, 43; Mr. 
Bryce expected to take text from, 
203. Historical address at Platts- 
burgh Barracks; the Iroquois and the 
struggle for America, 207-14: Re- 
sults justify interest in the beginning, 
207; Champlain's expedition from 
Stadacona, 207; battle with the 
Iroquois, 208; the Five Nations and 
their government, 208-9; period of 
exploration and discovery, 209; 
failure of settlements, 210; decline of 
Spanish power, 210-11; the French 
and English only ready for expan- 
sion, 211-13; world owes many 
debts to France, 213; the Long 
House of the Iroquois, 213; French 
and Indian wars, 213-14; the final 
struggle, 214; faithfulness of Iro- 
quois, 214; settlers not soldiers build 
empires, 214; Pres. Taft on address 
of, 230; guest at banquet to Pres. 
Taft, 233; tribute of James Bryce 
to, 241 ; Jusserand on, and the Iro- 
quois, 290. 

Ro-tsi-ich-ni, " the coward spirit," Mo- 
hawk name of Lake Champlain, 389. 

Rouse's Point, Fireworks on successive 
evenings at, 60; appointed commit- 
tees and made an appropriation, 60; 
Bi-State programme of celebration 
exercises at, 68; Indian pageants at, 
334. 

Roy, Mgr., auxiliary bishop of Quebec, 
303; replied to address of welcome, 
305. 

Royjal Savage, Wreck of the, lies near 
Valcour island. 34, 57. 174; at- 



tempt to raise the, abandoned, 85-86, 
364. 

Ruins, Military, in the Champlain val- 
ley. 4. 

Rum, Supply of, running short, 154. 

Rupert, Prince, charter member of Hud- 
son Bay Company, 111. 

Russia in semi-barbarism, 211; new 
birth of freedom in, 330. 

Ryswick, Treaty of, 392. 

CABLE BAY, 215. 

^ Sachems of the Five Nations, 209. 

Sackett. Col. Henry W., secretary of 

the Hudson-Fulton Commission, 336. 
Saguenay, Champlain explored country 

around, 356, 357. 
Sailing contests arranged for, 60. 
St. Alban's Choral Union at Isle La 

Motte, 302 ; sang at dedication of 

Boulder Monument, 333. 
St. Albans, Confederate attempt on 

bank at. 187; local societies from, at 

Isle La Motte, 312; celebration at. 

334. 
St. Augustine, French and Spanish 

colonies at, 209-10. 
St. Charles River. Ruins of Cartier's 

settlement on the, 358. 
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, defeated at 

Ticonderoga by Burgoyne, 161-62; 

in vision of the past, 305, 308. 
Saint Croix River, 2 I 0. 
" Saint George " and ** Saint Denis," 

134. 
St. John, Champlain celebration at, 13, 

38. 



522 



Analytical Index 



St. John's, Sloop seized at, by Benedict 
Arnold, 6, 34 ; captured by General 
Montgomery, 6 ; Burgoyne embarked 
at, 8; Isaac Weld at, 406. 

St. Joseph established by Du Luth, 272. 

St. Joseph's Church, Burlington, High 
mass at, on Champlain Sunday, 101. 

St. Lawrence River explored by Cham- 
plain to Lake Ontario, 110, 327, 
357; Champlain friendly with In- 
dians north of the, 110. 213; the 
river, 147; the basin of the, 265; 
villages dotting the banks of the, 269; 
peopled by the French, 328; British 
fleet ascended, 365 ; shares a com- 
mon geologic birth and progress with 
the Champlain valley, 372. 

St. Lawrence channel sunk below sea 
level, 381 ; upward movement of a 
thousand feet, 381. 

St. Louis, The white cross of, on flag 
of blue, 73. 

St. Louis, Tradition of the French at, 
150; Chouteau built first house at, 
272. 

St. Louis, Exposition of, 1 904, 1 4. 

St. Malo, Jacques Cartier from, 150, 
217. 

St. Mary's Cathedral, Burlington, Ponti- 
fical mass at, on Champlain Sunday, 
101. 

St. Patrick's choir of Montreal, Music 
at the service at Cliff Haven furnished 
by the, 102. 

St. Paul, Vital Guerin chose site of, 
272. 

St. Paul's churchyard. New York, Mont- 
gomery buried in, 1 60. 



St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Burling- 
ton, Bp. Arthur C. A. Hall 
preached at, on Champlain Sunday, 
101. 

St. Peter's Catholic Church, Ticon- 
deroga. High mass celebrated at, 1 39. 

St. Peter's Church, Albany, Lord 
George Augustus Howe buried in, 74. 

St. Peter's Church, Plattsburgh. Mass 
celebrated at, 231 ; hymns by boys' 
choir of, 231. 

St. Peter's College, Plattsburgh, Civic 
parade reviewed at, and address by 
H. A Dubuque, 231. 

St. Pierre. 217. 

Ste. Anne, Chapel, with statue of, on 
Sandy Point, Isle La Motte, 33; ser- 
vice at, on Champlain Sunday, 1 09, 
302-3; service at, July 9th. 304-12: 
Address by Rt. Rev. Thomas A. 
Prevel in French, 304-6; in English, 
306-8; first shelter of the divine 
Saviour, 306, 308; sermon by Rev. 
P. J. Barrett at. 309-12; high mass 
celebrated at, Rt. Rev. Thos. M. A. 
Burke, officiating, 312; societies re- 
presented at, 312. 

Ste. Anne, Fort dedicated to, at Isle La 
Motte, 4. 

Saintonge aroused. 217; the Huguenots 
in, 355. 

Salieres, de, commander of regiment, 
389. 

Samuel Champlain and the Lake Cham- 
plain Tercentenary, by Henry W. 
Hill, 355-67. 

Sandoval, The, revenue cutter, too large 
to pass through canals, 85. 



Analytical Index 



523 



Sandy Point, Isle La Motte, 25, 301 ; 
historic associations of, 33; chapel of 
Ste. Anne on, 33; place of Cham- 
plain's landing, 315, 362. 

Sanford, Flenry Gansevoort, secretary of 
Society of the Colonial Wars, 31. 

Saranac, The, called Riviere de St. 
Amant, 221; Sumac River, 226; 
Indian pageants given at mouth of, 
232. 

Saranac, The, lake steamer, 418. 

Saratoga, Burgoyne defeated at, 8, 119; 
should be a Mecca for good Ameri- 
cans and Britishers, 288. 

Saratoga, The, of Macdonough's fleet, 
163, 164,228. 

Saskascheiqualie Creek, 279. 

Saxon and Gaul wrestle, 1 68. 

Scalping began at Crown Point, 394. 

Scar Face a direct descendant from 
Eunice Williams, 427. 

Schenectady, Retaliation for burning of, 
34. 152; the burning of, 152. 228; 
expedition which destroyed, came and 
went by the Lake, 390-91. 

Schuyler, Captain John, Expedition in 

1690 under. 4, 34, 152, 391; on 
Sept. 2. 1 698, 5 ; at Isle La Motte, 
315. 391 ; captured La Prairie. 391 ; 
bearer of letters from Gov. Bellomont 
to Frontenac, 392. 

Schuyler. Major Peter. Expedition in 

1691 under, 4-5. 34; at Isle La 
Motte, 315; pursued raiders in I 693, 
391 ; carried copy of Treaty of 
Ryswick to Quebec. 392. 

Schuyler. General Philip, in expedition 
with Gen. Robert Montgomery, in 
1775. 5. 6, 118; returned to Al- 



bany, 6; expedition of 1691 of, 
captured Fort La Prairie, 152; 
blamed for the fall of Ticonderoga, 
1 62 ; patience and dignity of, 1 62, 
228; in vision of the past, 305, 308; 
met Gen. Montgomery at Isle La 
Motte, 316. 

Schuyler family. Services rendered the 
colony by the. 392. 

Schuyler's Island, Benedict Arnold an- 
nounced loss of his vessels from, 23; 
fashioned like a tear, 221. 

Science, Modern, began with Bacon, 
329; changes in life of man through 
wizardry of, 330. 

ScoLLARD, Clinton. — Song for the 
Tercentenary of Lake Champlain, 
132-36. 

Scononton. Frowning, 221. 

Scotch Highland Regiment of Montreal. 
5ee Fifth Royal Canadian High- 
landers. 

Scotchmen and Englishmen knit together, 
204. 

Scotchmen and Vermonters, 283, 293. 

Sculpture, The masterpieces of, before 
1609, 332. 

Sea of the Iroquois, 1 33. 

Seaport, A Canadian, in the middle of 
the continent. 246. 

Seaports. Canadian, on the Pacific 
ocean, 246, 

Second Regiment. N. G. N. Y.. Col. 
James W. Lester, in camp at Platts- 
burgh Barracks. 77; in parade and 
review. 77, 232; relieved by First 
Regiment, N. G. N. Y., 78; list of 
officers of. present. 81-83; band of, 
also in parade, 83; escort to Second 



524 



Analytical Index 



division in parade at Plattsburgh, 
232. 

Seigniories. See Grants, Seigniorial. 

Seligman, Isaac N., Treasurer of the 
Hudson- Fulton Commission, 336. 

Senecas, one of the Five nations, 208. 

Settlements begun on Lake Champlain, 
5 ; following French and Indian 
War. 6. 

Settlements, French, wdthin the Province 
of New York, left no impression, 2. 

Settlers not soldiers build empires, 214. 

Seven Years' War, The, 156, 363; 
Parkman on, 156. 

Severance, Frank H., chosen Secretary 
of the New York State Commission, 
22. 40. 

Severance, Frank Hayward. — 
Episodes in the history of the Cham- 
plain valley, 385-400; What early 
travelers said of the Champlain val- 
ley, 403-23. 

Seymour, Edmund, Assistance rendered 
by, 61. 

Shackleton, Ernest H., Champlain the 
equal of, 304, 306. 

Shales, The Utica and Hudson River, 
378-79; on the low shores of Ver- 
mont, 379. 

Shakespeare, The common right to, a 
binding force, 295. 

Sham battle at Crown Point, 90, 117; 
at Ticonderoga. 90, 1 39. 

Shattuck, L. E., in charge of Publicity 
Bureau, 59. 

Shea, James, member of New York 
Commission, 50, 52; on committees, 
51-52; remarks of, at Ticonderoga, 



177; on Committee on Location and 

Cost of Monument, 339. 
Shelburne Bay, 226. 
Sherman, James S., Absence of, 68; 

from the banquet, 237. 
Shields, Armorial, on Champlain memo- 
rial, 347. 
Shirley, Gen., opposed move against the 

French on the Lake, 393. 
Shoemaker, Ira H., Assistance rendered 

by, 61. 
Sibley, Hon. Joseph C, Assistance ren- 
dered by, 61 ; loaned the Valcour to 

the Commission, 77. 
Siesta, New York has introduced a, 235. 
Silliman, Augustus E., gives pen pictures 

of scenery and incident, 4 1 8. 
Silurian time. Closing stage of marine 

conditions in the ancient, 378. 
Skene, Major Philip, settled at Skenes- 

borough, 6. 
Skenesborough, now Whitehall, settled 

by Major Philip Skene, 6; boats 

built at, 6; Isaac Weld at, 403. 
Slafter, Edmund F., Memoir of Samuel 

Champlain, 356. 
Smith, Alexander R., engaged to assist 

the Commission, 58; on Committee 

on Badges, 52. 
Smith, Miss Dorothea, unveiled Boulder 

Monument, 333. 
Smith, Mrs. Edward Curtis, presided at 

dedication of Boulder Monument, 

333. 
Smith, William, of New York, on Gen. 

Johnson's army, 153-54. 
Sobapsqua, " the cloven way," Indian 

name for Split Rock, 226. 



Analytical Index 



525 



Social forces. Impress of, dependent on 

extent and permanency, 2. 
Society of Daughters of 1812, Tablet 

presented by, 335. 
Society of the Colonial Wars in the State 

of New York, Resolution of the, 30- 

31. 
Soldiers of England and of the United 

States marching together, 257. 
Son of Man, The, title of the world- 
poem, 332. 
Song for the Tercentenary of Lake 

Champlain (CLINTON ScOLLARD), 

132-36. 
Sorel, Capt., met " embassy " of In- 
dians, 388. 
Sorel, or Richelieu, River, fixed upon as 

boundary, 24, 382. 
South, The solid, 284. 
South American republics, 329. 
South Carolina sent men against the 

French. 214. 
Spain, Decline of the power of, 2 1 0-1 1 . 
Spain and Portugal, Claims of, to Am- 
erican continent, not recognized, 1 09. 
Spaniard, The, burned for achievement, 

271. 
Spanish Empire, Growth of the, in North 

and South America, 265. 
Spanish navigators, 355. 
Spectacular entertainments. The, highly 

instructive, 62. 
** Spectator " on the Indian pageants in 

the Outlook, 88-90. 
Speeches, Difficulty in three, a day, 282, 

291. 
Spies in moose skin, 88. See, also. The 

Libretto of Hiawatha, the Mohawk, 

427-63. 



Split Rock in Champlain's course, 148, 
222 ; called Sobapsqua, " the cloven 
way," 226; as a site for the monu- 
ment, 341, 342; called " Re-gioch- 
me," 389 ; marked boundary between 
Mohawks and Algonquins, 222, 389; 
depth of Lake off, 420. 

Stadacona, Indian village where now 
stands Quebec, 207; Iroquois driven 
from, 427. 

Stafford, Wendell P. — Address of, 
at Isle La Motte, 326-32: The year 
1609, 326; Champlain, voyager, 
scholar, soldier, 327; Caniaderi 
guarunte, 327; the highway of war, 
328; the conjurer's wand, 328-29; 
marvels of 300 years, 329; modern 
science, 329; life of common men 
bettered, 329-30; forms of govern- 
ment changed, 330; changes in the 
life of man, 330; Democracy tri- 
umphant, 331; education, 331; the 
world-poem, the Son of Man, 332; 
the things that never change, 332. 

Stanley, Sir Henry M., Champlain the 
equal of, 304, 306. 

Stansbury, P., describes old fort at 
Chambly, 409; woodcuts in book of, 
engraved by first American wood en- 
graver, 409. 

Stark, John, saved Fort William Henry, 
155. 

State Department, Washington, Commit- 
tee to arrange with, the sending of 
official and diplomatic invitations, 57" 
58. 

State efficiency, A rivalry of, 261. 

Steam navigation. The 1 00th anniversary 
of, on Lake Champlain, 36. 



526 



Analytical Index 



Steamboat, The second, launched on 
Lake Champlain, 266. 

Steamers, The Champlain, 408, 411- 
13. 416-18. 

Steele. Lt. George W.. Jr.. U. S. N.. in 
command of flotilla, 76. 85; thanks 
of Commissioners due to, 76. 

Stetson, Hon. Francis Lynde, Assistance 
rendered by, 6 1 . 

Stevens, C. A, at hearing, 341. 

Stone, Arthur F., member of Vermont 
Commission, 52. 

Story of Lake Champlain, The (HAM- 
ILTON Wright Mabie), 147-65. 
For analysis, see author entry. 

Stotesbury, Capt. Louis W., Seventh 
Regiment N. G., A. D. C. to Gov. 
Hughes, 76. 

Stranahan, Mrs. F. Stewart, delivered 
address of welcome. 333. 

Street. Lt.-Col. D. R.. commanding 
Governor-General's Foot Guards, 78. 

Struggle, The decisive, begun. 156. 

Stuart. James, on the lake steamer Frank- 
lin, 4] 3. 

Sub-Committee of the New York Com- 
mission appointed, 22-23; confer- 
ence of, with Secretary of State, Elihu 
Root, 25-26; resolutions of, adopted 
at joint meeting of Commissions at Al- 
bany, 26. 

Sub-Committee of the Vermont Commis- 
sion recommend a celebration, 29. 

Suggestions, Sundry, for the celebration, 
27. 

Sullivan, Gen. John, abandoned con- 
quest of Canada, 6; fortified Point 
au Fer, 24. 



Sulpicians of Montreal, Rev. Abbe 
Lecocq, Superior of the, 303. 

Sumac River, Indian name of the 
Saranac, 226. 

Swanton, The Indians salute the cross at, 
305, 307; half-breed settlement at, 
328; celebration at, 334; local so- 
cieties from, at Isle La Motte, 312. 

Swanton Falls. Settlement at. 6. 

Sweden. No New, in America. 211. 

TADOUSAC. Failure of settlement 
at, 210, 215. 217; Champlain 
in harbor of, 356. 357. 
TafT. President WiLLIAM HOW- 
ARD. — Arrived at Bluff Point. 75; 
escorted from Smith M. Weed's 
house to Plattsburgh Barracks, 75 ; 
reviewed Canadian, regular, and 
State troops. 78; at the review 
at Plattsburgh Barracks. 78; at 
Ticonderoga, 1 39 ; taken to Platts- 
burgh. 1 39 ; remarks of. at Ticonder- 
oga. 185-87: Three nations in cele- 
bration. 1 85 ; Champlain a man of 
all nations, 185-86; the people of 
lower Canada, 186; the Belgium of 
America, 1 86 ; the only passageway. 
186-87. Flowers presented to, by 
httle girls at CHff Haven. 193; 
address, 1 93-95 : Compliments and 
enthusiasm, 193; conversion of the 
Filipinos, 194; inspiring statue of 
Legaspi and Erdinator, 194; relig- 
ious tolerance, 194; representative 
of the United States at the Vatican, 
194-95. Jusserand on the colonial 
spirit of Champlain in, 202; loved 
and respected in Canada, 204; 



Analytical Index 



527 



welcome at Murray Bay, 205. 
Remarks at Plattsburgh Barracks. 
230: On Senator Root's address, 
230; the people of Canada, 230; 
success of the celebrations, 230; re- 
viewed parades, 232. Banquet to. at 
Hotel Champlain, 233-49; speech at 
the banquet, 235-37; congratulations 
to New York and Vermont on 
strengthening our foreign relations, 
235; on a siesta. 235-36; thanks 
to the Scotch Highland Regiment, 
236; conservation of our Govern- 
ment, 236; progress in many direc- 
tions, 236-37; conservation of our 
resources, 237; faith in the Consti- 
tution, 237; indestructible union of 
indestructible states, 237. — James 
Bryce on, 24 1 ; Rodolphe Lemieux 
on, 243; reception of, at Burlington, 
254-55; and the Panama canal, 
270; remarks of, at Burlington, 278- 
79. Summons to Washington dis- 
obeyed, 278; three generations of an- 
cestors Vermonters, 278; site for a 
monument to Champlain, 236, 279; 
a unique and many-sided memorial, 
279; three great powers met in 
amity, 279; lesson of the continuous 
show, 279; the burnt offering. 282; 
George Fred Williams on " ferocious 
hospitality," 282; evil of three 
speeches a day, 282 ; the Vermonter 
a safe man, 283; no deserted farms 
in Vermont to-day, 283; solidity on 
sectional lines, 284 ; ladies at the ban- 
quet, 284 ; effect of this memorial on 
international relations, 284; prosper- 
ity of the Dominion, 285; Governor 



Hughes on, 286; M. Jusserand on, 
294; left for Washington, 297. 
Taft arch. The, at Cliff Haven, 191. 
Tahawas, Indian name of Mt. Marcy 

226. 
Tariff, The lure of the, 289. 
Taylor, Hon. John C. R., member of 

New York Commission. 22, 40. 
Tenth Regiment, N. G. N. Y., Col. 
John I. Pruyn, in camp at Crown 
Point, 77, 136; movements and re- 
views of. by Governor and President. 
77, 136; list of officers of, present, 
83-84; band of, also participated in 
exercises, 84. 
Thanksgiving for peace, A, Champlain 

Sunday, 97. 
Third Brigade. National Guard, N. Y.. 
List of officers of, headquarters of. 
present at the celebration. 81. 
Thirty Years' War, Effects of. in Ger- 
many, 211. 
Thomas, Governor, Address at dedica- 
tion of Boulder Monument, 333-34. 
Thomas, Rev. John M., member of Ver- 
mont Commission, 52; prepared Or- 
der of service for Champlain Sunday, 
93-101; prayer at exercises at Isle 
La Motte, July 9, 312-13; chair- 
man of joint meeting with N. Y. 
Committee, 345-46. 
Thompson, Col. Robert M., Assistance 
of, acknowledged, 61 ; received and 
entertained President Taft and party 
at Ticonderoga, 139. 
Thornton, Major John, followed Cham- 
plain's route, 419; took note of trav- 
eling companions, and fine officials. 



528 



Analytical Index 



419-20; praised Westport and vis- 
ited Lake George, 420. 

Three Rivers, Champlain passed the, 
356. 

Ticonderoga, Loss of, in 1 759 by the 
French. 2-3, 363, 396; defeat of 
General Abercromby at, by Mont- 
calm, 3, 34, 1 34, 395-96; the French 
fall back from, 3, 34-35. 328, 
396; Fort Carillon built at, in 1 755, 
5 ; Dieskau's expedition to, 5 ; cap- 
ture of, by Ethan Allen and the Green 
Mountain Boys, 6, 34, 57, 160, 
396; troops assembled at, 6; visited 
by the Commissioners, 25 ; celebration 
exercises to be held at, 27, 366; suc- 
cessive owners of, 32-33 ; a landmark 
that should be preserved, 35 ; meeting 
of the Commission at, 58; fireworks 
at, on successive evenings, 60; dock 
at, rebuilt, 62; Bi-State programme 
of celebration at, 64; Lord George 
Augustus Howe's remains found in, 
74; Indian pageants given at, 86; 
captured by the Indians of the 
pageants in a sham battle, 90; Bur- 
goyne reduced, 119, 161 -62 ; a fre- 
quent battle-ground, 124; happen- 
ings at, 126; stronghold of three na- 
tions, 141; plan to capture, 161. 
Tuesday, July 6, the celebration, 
139-87: Arrival of President and 
guests, 1 39 ; ruins of stronghold, the 
Revenge, military review, and sham 
battle, 1 39 ; lunch on the Ticonder- 
oga, 1 39 ; local celebration at the 
village, 1 39-40 ; French and British 
Ambassadors interested in historic as- 
sociations of, 140; Introduction to lit- 



erary exercises by Senator Henry W. 
Hill, 140-41: The valley and its 
names, 141 ; the stronghold of three 
nations, 141; naval victories and the 
Lake, 1 4 1 . — Address of Governor 
Hughes, 1 42-45 ; address of Gov- 
ernor Prouty, 145-46; historical ad- 
dress: The story of Lake Cham- 
plain, by Hamilton Wright 
Mabie, 147-65; Ticonderoga: A 
ballad, by PERCY MacKaye, 166- 
75 ; remarks of Governor Hughes in- 
troducing Vice-Admiral Uriu, 1 75 
remarks of Vice-Admiral Uriu, 1 75 
remarks of Hon. Seth Low, 1 76-77 
vote at, as to place of Champlain's 
fight with the Iroquois, 176; re- 
marks of James Shea, 177; remarks 
of David J. Foster, 177-79; remarks 
of Frank Plumley, 179-80; arrival 
of President Taft, 180; remarks of 
Ambassador Jusserand, 1 80-83 ; 
Montcalm at, 181-82; remarks of 
Ambassador James Bryce, 1 83-85 ; 
remarks of President Taft, 185-87; 
Indian pageants, 187; fireworks, 187; 
Governor Hughes on, 1 98 ; Governor 
Prouty on, 201 ; as site for monu- 
ment, 341 ; greatest French force as- 
sembled at, 395 ; Isaac Weld on the 
ruins at, 404 ; J. R. Godley charmed 
with, 417. 

Ticonderoga, A ballad (Percy Mac- 
Kaye), 166-75. For analysis of, 
see author entry. 

Ticonderoga Creek claimed as site of 
Champlain's fight with the Iroquois, 
74. 



Analytical Index 



529 



Ticonderoga Historical Society set up a 
reproduction of Montcalm's cross of 
victory, 140. 

Ticonderoga village. Local celebration 
at. 139-40. 

Ticonderoga, Steamer, engaged by the 
Commission, 61 ; with President on 
board escorted by the A/an/ep, 76; 
transport for Tenth Regiment, N. G. 
N. Y., 77; for official party. 77; 
for Fifth U. S. I. and Governor-Gen- 
eral's Foot Guards, 78 ; lunch on the, 
at Ticonderoga, 1 39 ; took Governor 
Prouty to Isle La Motte, 302. 

Ticonderoga, The, one of Macdonough's 
fleet, 228. 

Tift, W. C. at hearing, 341. 

Tiotiake, Montreal Island, 86. 

Tolerance in religion, Hughes, Taft, and 
Gibbons on, 1 92-96. 

Tonty, Henri de, 150. 

Toronto, The future, 147. 

Torpedo boats at Isle La Motte, 302. 

Tour of inspection. 5ee Historic sites. 
Tour of inspection of. 

Tracy, Alexandre de Prouville de, and 
the Carignan-Salieres Regiment, at 
dedication of Fort Ste Anne, 4, 33, 
315; burned Iroquois villages, 213; 
expedition of, 388, 389. 

Transcontinental Railway, The Cana- 
dian, 246. 

Transcontinental railways, 270. 

Transportation lines. Negotiations with, 
56. 

Trappers, The, 270. 

Travel Magazine for July, 1909, de- 
voted to Lake Champlain and the 
celebration, 59. 
35 



Traveling show. A., 73, 282; a modest 
member of, 289 ; last performance of. 
291. 

Traversy, Capt. de, killed by the Mo- 
hawks, 388. 

Treadwell, Col, George C, military 
secretary to Governor Hughes, 76. 

Treaty of Ryswick, Copy of, carried to 
Quebec, 392 ; followed by treaty be- 
tween the French and the Five Na- 
tions, 396. 

Treaty of Utrecht made the valley neu- 
tral territory, 392. 

Tremblay, Wilfrid, director of boy 
choir, 303. 

Trent River, 365. 

Trenton limestone. The, 378. 

Tribes, The same, in each of the Five 
Nations, 208-9; bonds of tribal 
union, 209. 

Troop " H " of Fifteenth Cavalry, 
Capt. W. T. Littebrant, the personal 
escort of President Taft in parade at 
Pittsburgh, 232. 

Troupe, The, disbanded, 286. 

Trumbull, John, at Crown Point, 1 30. 

Tryon, Governor William, Communica- 
tion from Lord Dartmouth to, 1. 

Tubal Cains, The, of slate and clay, 
226. 

Turkey, Constitutional government in> 
330. 

Turner, Dr. M. R, at hearing, 341. 

Tuttle, Mrs. George Fuller, "A Chro- 
nological History of the Champlain 
Valley," 59. 

Twain, Mark, on the British and Amer-|^ 
icans inheriting the earth, 239. 



530 



Analytical Index 



Twenty-fourth U, S. Infantry, colored. 
Col. William Paulding, in parade at 
Plattsburgh, 75, 332; list of officers 
of the, present at the celebration, 80; 
band also in parade, 81. 

UNGAVA. The Great Glacier from, 
379. 

Union, Indestructible, of indestructible 
states, 237. 

United States, President of, and mem- 
bers of his cabinet. Significance of 
presence of the, 63, 318; 1 33d anni- 
versary of independence of, celebrated, 
74; Canadian regiments reviewed by 
President of the, 204; Government 
of, conservative, 236; progress in 
many directions in, 236; conservation 
of resources of, 237; faith in Con- 
stitution of, 237; assistance from, 
317. 

United States, The, and Canada, Re- 
lations of. 112, 235. 241-42, 244- 
46, 273-74. 284-85; the host of the 
day. 1 65 ; complimented in her dis- 
tinguished guests, 1 85 ; land of faith 
and tolerance, 193; and the Vatican, 
194-95; England settled. 240; ad- 
miration of England for, 240; best 
wishes from Province of Quebec for, 
249. 

United States and France, Bond be- 
tween, strengthened, 235. 

United States and Great Britain, Bond 
between, strengthened, 235. 

United States army and navy. Detach- 
ments from, in the celebration, 58, 62, 
75-76. 



United States navy. Flotilla from, under 
command of Lt. Geo. W. Steele, 
Jr., 76, 85; fired salutes in honor of 
President Taft and Governor Hughes, 
76; first naval exhibition since the 
War of 1812.85. 

University of Vermont, Banquet in gym- 
nasium at, 280-97; tablet to soldiers 
of War of 1812 unveiled at, 334- 
35. 

Uriu, Vice-Admiral Stakichi, reviewed 
Tenth Reg.. N. G. N. Y., 77; in 
full uniform at the review at Platts- 
burgh Barracks, 78; remarks of, at 
Ticonderoga, 1 75 ; guest at banquet 
to President Taft, 233. 

VALCOUR, The, with President 
Taft on board, escorted by the 
Manley, 76; loaned to the Commis- 
sion by Joseph C. Sibley, 77. 

Valcour Island, Naval engagements be- 
gun at, under Benedict Arnold, 7, 34, 
126, 134, 141, 328; three naval en- 
gagements off, 23, 57; wreck of the 
Roy^al Savage lies near, 34; the ce- 
dar trees of, 221 ; points to the 
north, 237. 

Van der Heyden, Dyrick, 390. 

Van Ness, Governor Cornelius Peter, 
entertained Lafayette at Burlington. 
411. 

Van Patten, William J., member of 
Vermont Commission, 52. 

Vatican, William H. Taft representative 
of the U.S. at the, 194-95. 

Vaudreuil, Gen. Philippe de Rigaud, 
jealous of Montcalm, 3; assigned de 



Analytical Index 



531 



Bourlamaque to command in Cham- 
plain valley, 3; in the vision of the 
past, 305, 308. 

Venison, One must go to Lake George 
for. 395. 

Vergennes, Celebration at, at Fort Cas- 
sin on Otter Creek, 334; James Mon- 
roe examined iron works at, 407. 

Vermont, an independent republic, 3; 
first Christian worship in, 32, 33; 
militia from, in the celebration, 58, 
62 ; represented by its executive head, 
63; conceived the idea of the cele- 
bration, 15, 145, 146; good vsrill of, 
for her big brother. New York, 146; 
set the pace for New York with Ethan 
Allen, 177. 178; New York at 
peace with, 198; appreciation of, by 
Gov. Hughes, 259; great assets of, 
its men and women and its scenery, 
267-68; as solid as Alabama and 
Georgia, 284; has inspiration from a 
thousand sons, 288; Champlain and 
his associates the first white men in, 
362; creation of State, put end to 
land contests, 398. 

Vermont Commission for the 300th 
Anniversary of the Discovery of Lake 
Champlain authorized by Legislature, 
15-16; members of the, 16, 28; 
some members of, presented the mat- 
ter to. Governor Hughes, 16; and to 
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 16; joint meet- 
ings with New York Commission, 22, 
26; a permanent organization, to act 
with New York Commission, 28; 
prompt to co-operate, 29; Sub-Com- 
mittee of, 29; Publicity Bureau of, 
29. 



Vermont Division of the National Guard 
escorted President and guests, 254; 
in parade at Burlington, 280; Com- 
pany " M " of. Governor Prouty's 
escort at Isle La Motte, 302, 333. 

Vermont Legislature, Joint resolution of, 
appointing a Commission, 15-16; ap- 
proved by Governor Proctor, 1 6. 

Vermont lineage, one to be proud of, 
278, 282. 

Vermont, Steamer, Meeting of Vermont 
Commission on, 345 ; 1 2th annual 
meeting of N. Y. Historical Associa- 
tion held on, 4-6 October, 1910. 
423. 

Vermonter, The, a safe man, 283. 

Vermonters, Bond between, 278. 

Verrazano explored Atlantic coast and 
claimed it for France, 110; left no 
trace, 209. 

Vessels, The small, of Magellan, 
Champlain, and Cortez, 186. 

Victoria bridge. Towers of, from Isle La 
Motte, 221. 

Vigne, Godfrey T., gives pleasant pic- 
tures, 414. 

Vincennes owes name to Chevalier de 
Vincennes, 272. 

Virginia, general name for the coasts of 
North America, 1 1 0. 

Virginia sent men against the French, 
214. 

Vivian, H. Hussey, Hurried American 
tour of, 422. 

Voltaire on the Seven Years' War, 1 56. 

Voyageur, Figure of a. on Champlain 
memorial, 347. 



532 



Analytical Index 



WABASH River, French military 
post on the. 111. 

Wadhams, Gjmmodore, on Committee 
on Naval Parades, 51. 

Wadsworth, J. W., Jr., member of New 
York Commission, 22, 40. 

Wahopartenie, Indian name of Mt. 
Whiteface. 226. 

Walsh, Rt. Rev. Mons. John J., as- 
sisted at vesper service at Burhngton 
on Champlain Sunday. 

War of 1812, Macdonough's naval vic- 
tory in, 8-9, 57, 163-64; tablet to 
soldiers of, unveiled at University of 
Vermont, 334-35 ; President Monroe 
visits sites of conflicts in, 407; Mr. 
Beaufoy writes at length of, 4 1 2. 

War of the Rebellion, Canadians In the, 
294. 

Ware, Franklin B., Report of, on site for 
monument, 341. 

Warner, Colonel Seth, captured Crown 
Point, 6. 34, 118, 119, 130; Ver- 
monters have, 198, 258, 259; in vis- 
ion of the past, 305, 308; Boulder 
Monument to, 33. 

Warwick, Historical pageant at, 1 3. 

Washington, George, Plaudits of, for 
Benedict Arnold's naval engagements, 
7; centennial of Inauguration of, 13; 
opened the gates of the Great West 
and the Far East, 156; and Charles 
Lee, 1 60 ; the patient star of, 1 72 ; 
small number of men under, 177; 
brought order out of confusion, 2 1 3, 
245. 

Water conditions. Momentous change in, 
381. 



Waterways, The oldest, on earth, 374. 

Weaver, William R., member of New 
York Commission, 50, 52 ; on commit- 
tees, 51-52; on Committee on a 
Separate Memorial, 344. 

Webber. Charles A., Arch called Taft 
arch erected by, 191. 

Wedge that splits the sky. Mount 
Marcy, 226. 

Weed, Hon. Smith M., Assistance ren- 
dered by, 61 ; President Taft at 
house of, 75 ; entertained the distin- 
guished guests at luncheon, 197. 

Weld, Charles Richard, on Lake in a 
pall of smoke, 406. 

Weld, Isaac, described the Champlain 
valley, 36; journey of, 403-4; on 
Vermont hospitality, 404; on Ticon- 
deroga, 404; on ruins at Crown 
Point, 404; Chimney Point, 404-5; 
experiences on the Lake, 405 ; stopped 
by a British brig, 405-6; driven 
ashore at Isle aux Noix, 406; an 
Invaluable record, 406. 

Wellington at Waterloo, 1 60. 

West, Settlement of the, due to Cana- 
dians, 272. 

Western Hemisphere, The, in 1 609, 
329. 

What early travelers said of the Cham- 
plain valley (FraNK H. SEVER- 
ANCE), 403-23. 

WTiig and Tory, The American Revo- 
lution a grapple between, 330. 

White Chevalier, The. 1 67. 

White, Hon. Horace, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, Assistance rendered by, 61. 

White man. The first, on New York 
territory, I, 215. 



Analytical Index 



533 



White mountains. Charms of the coun- 
try around the, 267. 

Whitehall, Two shipyards and two dry- 
docks at, 418; W. C. Bryant at, 
418. 

Whitehall, The, lake steamer, 418. 

Whites, First attempted settlement of, at 
Isle La Motte, 4. 

Whittier's " Centennial Poem," Begin- 
ning of, 125. 

Wickes, F. B., at hearing, 341. 

Wiley, W. G., at hearing, 341. 

Williams, David, offered land on Mt. 
Defiance as site for memorial, 34 1 . 

Williams, Eunice, Scar Face, a descend- 
ant of, acted in the Indian pageant, 
89, 427. 

Williams, Col. Ephraim, in Gen. John- 
son's army, 154; killed in fight with 
Dieskau, 154. 

Williams, George Fred, on the ferocious 
hospitality of Memphis, 282. 

Willsborough, Burgoyne feasted Indians 
at, 8. 

Willsborough Point, 127; an impossible 
location for Champlain's battle with 
the Iroquois, 128. 

Windmill Point, International conference 
at, 1, 24; settlement with stone 
windmill at, 5, 24. 220, 316; 
Arnold encountered Indians at, 316; 
the French at, 328. 

Winooski, Local societies from, at Isle 
La Motte, 312. 

Winooski River, Deerfield raiders 
ascended the, 396. 

Winthrop, John, Governor of Connecti- 
cut, sent spies to Lake Champlain, 
390. 



Witherbee, Frank S., member of New 
York Commission, 22, 40; on Sub- 
Committee, 23; at conference with 
Secretary Root, 25, 43; acknowl- 
edgment of assistance rendered by, 
61. 

Witherbee, Walter C, member of New 
York Commission, 50, 52; treasurer 
and auditor, 51, 52; on committees, 
51, 52; and Mr. Myers visited 
Washington to arrange official invita- 
tions through State Department, 57- 
58; and Mr; Pell visited Governor's 
Island, 58; and Mr. Hill visited 
Washington in regard to Federal co- 
operation, 59; chairman of Commit- 
tee to Raise the Ro^al Savage, 85- 
86; presided at Literary exercises at 
Crown Point forts, 1 1 7-36; welcome 
and introduction of Governor Hughes, 
117-18; introduced Seth Low, 119; 
introduced Albert C. Barnes, 125; 
conferred with Governor Hughes on 
site for monument, 341 ; chairman ol 
Committee on Erection of Memorial a{ 
Crown Point, 343; at meeting at 
Block House, Fort Ticonderoga^ 
345. 

Witherbee, Sherman & Co. gave site of 
forts at Crown Point to State of 
N. Y., 344. 

Wittenmeyer, Capt. E., of Fifth U. S 
I., chief of staff to the grand marshal 
in Plattsburgh parade, 232. 

Wolfe, Maj.-Gen. James, victorious al 
Quebec, 124, 158; honored with 
Montcalm, 183; on Gray's elegy, 
184; men like, rare, 184, 186; 



534 



Analytical Index 



backed by men fighting for their 

homes, 214. 
Wonakakatuk, Indian name of the Otter 

River, 226. 
Wood, Maj.-Gen. Leonard, commander 

Department of the East, 75. 
Woodford, General Stewart L., president 

of the Hudson-Fulton Commission, 

336. 
World-poem, The title of the, the Son 

of Man, 332. 
Wren, J. W., at hearing, 341. 



Wright, Miss Frances, gives chapter on 
Battle of Plattsburgh, 408; records 
destruction of the Phoenix, 408. 

Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 331. 

XAINTONGEOIS, Long live the, 
217. 

YEAR 1609, The, 326. 329. 
Years, Three hundred, 1 35. 329. 
Yorktov^, Centennial of, 13; number 
of men Washington had at, 1 77. 



